diff --git a/modules/io/src/mol/mmcif_reader.cc b/modules/io/src/mol/mmcif_reader.cc
index ae2bf5f2b820c1a134bd7e57999c712e567861ba..6ad79910030d9365683e96b57e317e3a160a90e9 100644
--- a/modules/io/src/mol/mmcif_reader.cc
+++ b/modules/io/src/mol/mmcif_reader.cc
@@ -1949,9 +1949,7 @@ void MMCifReader::OnEndData()
         pdb_auth_chain_name = css->first.GetStringProp("pdb_auth_chain_name");
         info_.AddMMCifPDBChainTr(css->first.GetName(), pdb_auth_chain_name);
         info_.AddPDBMMCifChainTr(pdb_auth_chain_name, css->first.GetName());
-      } else if (edm_it->second.type!=mol::CHAINTYPE_WATER) {
-        // mark everything that doesn't have SEQRES and isn't of type
-        // water as ligand
+      } else if (edm_it->second.entity_type=="non-polymer") {
         mol::ChainHandle chain=css->first;
         mol::ResidueHandleList residues=chain.GetResidueList();
         for (mol::ResidueHandleList::iterator