Approaches to detection of distantly related proteins by database searches.
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.
Cattell
K
K
University of Victoria, BC, Canada.
Koop
B
B
Olafson
R S
RS
Fellows
M
M
Bailey
I
I
Olafson
R W
RW
Upton
C
C
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
D004279:DNA, Viral; D011506:Proteins; D045647:DNA Glycosylases; D009699:N-Glycosyl Hydrolases; D051981:Uracil-DNA Glycosidase