diff --git a/modules/io/src/mol/pdb_reader.cc b/modules/io/src/mol/pdb_reader.cc
index a1e1b0718e2c04b5cd2f44d404621deb4050d918..33cf4fc2450e090d2bf841d016d009140fbb43b1 100644
--- a/modules/io/src/mol/pdb_reader.cc
+++ b/modules/io/src/mol/pdb_reader.cc
@@ -303,7 +303,9 @@ void PDBReader::Import(mol::EntityHandle& ent,
           }
         }
         if (IEquals(curr_line.substr(0, 6), StringRef("SEQRES", 6))) {
-          this->ParseSeqRes(curr_line, line_num_);
+          if (read_seqres_) {
+            this->ParseSeqRes(curr_line, line_num_);
+          }
         }
         break;
       default: