InterPro provides an
integrated view of the commonly used signature databases, and has an intuitive
interface for text- and sequence-based searches.
Bioinformatics infrastructural activities are
crucial to modern biological research. Complete and up-to-date
databases of biological knowledge are vital for the increasingly
information-dependent biological and biotechnological research. Secondary protein databases on
functional sites and domains like PROSITE, PRINTS, SMART, Pfam, ProDom,
etc. are vital resources for identifying distant relationships in novel
sequences, and hence for predicting protein function and structure. Unfortunately,
these signature databases do not share the same formats and nomenclature, and
each database has is own strengths and weaknesses.
To capitalise on these, the following partners: EBI, SIB, University of Manchester, Sanger Institute, GENE-IT, CNRS/INRA, LION bioscience AG and University of Bergen unified PROSITE, PRINTS, ProDom and Pfam into InterPro (Integrated resource of Protein Families, Domains and Sites). The latest databases to join the project were SMART, and more recently, TIGRFAMs.
To capitalise on these, the following partners: EBI, SIB, University of Manchester, Sanger Institute, GENE-IT, CNRS/INRA, LION bioscience AG and University of Bergen unified PROSITE, PRINTS, ProDom and Pfam into InterPro (Integrated resource of Protein Families, Domains and Sites). The latest databases to join the project were SMART, and more recently, TIGRFAMs.