UniProt
Overview[edit]
UniProt (Universal Protein Resource) is a comprehensive, high-quality, and freely accessible database of protein sequence and functional information. It is a central hub for the collection of functional information on proteins, with accurate, consistent, and rich annotation. UniProt is a collaboration between the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB), and the Protein Information Resource (PIR).
History[edit]
UniProt was created in 2002 by the merger of three major protein sequence databases: Swiss-Prot, TrEMBL, and PIR-PSD. The goal was to provide a single, centralized resource for protein sequence and functional information.
Components[edit]
UniProt consists of several components:
- UniProtKB (UniProt Knowledgebase): The central database of protein sequences and functional information, which is divided into two sections:
* Swiss-Prot: A manually annotated and reviewed section. * TrEMBL: A section that contains computationally analyzed records that await full manual annotation.
- UniParc (UniProt Archive): A comprehensive and non-redundant database that contains most of the publicly available protein sequences in the world.
- UniRef (UniProt Reference Clusters): Provides clustered sets of sequences from UniProtKB and selected UniParc records to obtain complete coverage of sequence space at several resolutions.
Features[edit]
UniProt provides a wide range of features, including:
- Detailed protein sequence information.
- Functional annotations such as protein function, enzyme activity, and biological process involvement.
- Information on protein structure, post-translational modifications, and protein-protein interactions.
- Cross-references to other databases, including genomic and proteomic resources.
Access and Tools[edit]
UniProt is accessible through its website, which provides a user-friendly interface for searching and retrieving data. It also offers various tools for sequence analysis, including:
- BLAST: For sequence similarity searching.
- Align: For multiple sequence alignment.
- Retrieve/ID mapping: For converting between different database identifiers.
Applications[edit]
UniProt is widely used in bioinformatics, molecular biology, and biomedical research. It supports a variety of applications, including:
- Drug discovery and development.
- Genomics and proteomics research.
- Functional genomics studies.
