PROSITE
PROSITE is a database of protein families and domains. It is based on the
observation that, while there is a huge number of different proteins, most of them
can be grouped, on the basis of similarities in their sequences, into a limited
number of families. Proteins or protein domains belonging to a particular family
generally share functional attributes and are derived from a common ancestor.
It is apparent, when studying protein sequence families, that some regions have
been better conserved than others during evolution. These regions are generally
important for the function of a protein and/or for the maintenance of its three-
dimensional structure. By analyzing the constant and variable properties of such
groups of similar sequences, it is possible to derive a signature for a protein
family or domain, which distinguishes its members from all other unrelated
proteins. A pertinent analogy is the use of fingerprints by the police for
identification purposes. A fingerprint is generally sufficient to identify a given
individual. Similarly, a protein signature can be used to assign a newly
sequenced protein to a specific family of proteins and thus to formulate
hypotheses about its function.
PROSITE currently contains patterns and profiles specific for more than a thousand protein
families or domains. Each of these signatures comes with documentation
providing background information on the structure and function of these proteins.
Click here to see a sample entry
Last modified 3/Apr/2002 by ELG
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