Swiss-Prot

Swiss-Prot is a manually annotated, non-redundant protein sequence database. It is part of the UniProt consortium, which provides the scientific community with a comprehensive, high-quality and freely accessible resource of protein sequence and functional information. Swiss-Prot is recognized for its high level of annotations, a minimal level of redundancy and high level of integration with other databases.

History

Swiss-Prot was created in 1986 by Amos Bairoch during his PhD and developed by the Bioinformatics Group at the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB). In 2002, Swiss-Prot, TrEMBL (Translated EMBL Nucleotide Sequence Data Library), and PIR (Protein Information Resource) joined forces to create the UniProt consortium.

Content

Swiss-Prot contains information about the biological function of proteins, their domain structure, post-translational modifications, variants, and the diseases they are associated with. It is manually curated, meaning that entries are reviewed by experts who add, update, and correct information to ensure accuracy and reliability.

Format

Swiss-Prot entries are divided into two sections: the sequence and the annotation. The sequence section contains information about the protein sequence, including the amino acid sequence, the molecular weight, and the isoforms. The annotation section contains information about the protein's function, its domain structure, post-translational modifications, and the diseases it is associated with.

Use in Research

Swiss-Prot is widely used in the field of proteomics, where it serves as a reference database for protein identification and characterization. It is also used in genomics research, where it aids in the annotation of newly sequenced genomes.

See Also

• UniProt
• TrEMBL
• Protein Information Resource
• Bioinformatics
• Proteomics
• Genomics