ProFAT: A Tool for Protein Functional Annotation
Author Information
Author(s): Bradshaw Charles Richard, Surendranath Vineeth, Habermann Bianca
Primary Institution: Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics
Hypothesis
Can ProFAT effectively identify remote but biologically relevant relationships between protein sequences?
Conclusion
ProFAT can detect remote, biologically relevant relationships between proteins and assist in predicting protein function based on remote homologies.
Supporting Evidence
- ProFAT correctly identified between 90% and 100% of all domain family members studied.
- ProFAT integrates literature mining to enhance functional predictions.
- ProFAT allows users to customize searches based on specific biological contexts.
Takeaway
ProFAT is a tool that helps scientists find out what proteins do by looking for similarities with other proteins, even if those similarities are weak.
Methodology
ProFAT combines sensitive sequence database search methods, a fold recognition algorithm, and a text-mining approach to extract biological information from protein sequences.
Limitations
The effectiveness of ProFAT depends on the quality of the user-provided keyword list, which can lead to misleading results if not accurately aligned with the biological context.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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