title: Approaches to detection of distantly related proteins by database searches.
abstract: The searching of protein databases as a method of identifying newly sequenced genes is commonplace in molecular biology laboratories. However, it is a procedure that is not usually formally taught to students, and method cookbooks discuss it only briefly. This article uses a single family of highly diverged uracil-DNA glycosylases, which fall into two distinct groups, to highlight some of the difficulties associated with identification of such proteins by database searching.
authors.affiliation: University of Victoria, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Cattell
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Koop
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Olafson
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fellows
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bailey
authors.forename: R W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Olafson
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Upton
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D045647:DNA Glycosylases; D004260:DNA Repair; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D016208:Databases, Factual; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009699:N-Glycosyl Hydrolases / Q000737:chemistry*; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D016415:Sequence Alignment / Q000379:methods*; D051981:Uracil-DNA Glycosidase
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D011506:Proteins; D045647:DNA Glycosylases; D009699:N-Glycosyl Hydrolases; D051981:Uracil-DNA Glycosidase