title: LepChorionDB, a database of Lepidopteran chorion proteins and a set of tools useful for the identification of chorion proteins in Lepidopteran proteomes.
abstract: Chorion proteins of Lepidoptera have a tripartite structure, which consists of a central domain and two, more variable, flanking arms. The central domain is highly conserved and it is used for the classification of chorion proteins into two major classes, A and B. Annotated and unreviewed Lepidopteran chorion protein sequences are available in various databases. A database, named LepChorionDB, was constructed by searching 5 different protein databases using class A and B central domain-specific profile Hidden Markov Models (pHMMs), developed in this work. A total of 413 Lepidopteran chorion proteins from 9 moths and 1 butterfly species were retrieved. These data were enriched and organised in order to populate LepChorionDB, the first relational database, available on the web, containing Lepidopteran chorion proteins grouped in A and B classes. LepChorionDB may provide insights in future functional and evolutionary studies of Lepidopteran chorion proteins and thus, it will be a useful tool for the Lepidopteran scientific community and Lepidopteran genome annotators, since it also provides access to the two pHMMs developed in this work, which may be used to discriminate A and B class chorion proteins. LepChorionDB is freely available at http://bioinformatics.biol.uoa.gr/LepChorionDB.
authors.affiliation: Centre of Immunology and Transplantation, Biomedical Research Foundation, Academy of Athens, Athens 11527, Greece.
authors.forename: Nikolaos G
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Giannopoulos
authors.forename: Ioannis
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Michalopoulos
authors.forename: Nikos C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Papandreou
authors.forename: Apostolos
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Malatras
authors.forename: Vassiliki A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Iconomidou
authors.forename: Stavros J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Hamodrakas
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D030562:Databases, Protein; D004527:Egg Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D020407:Internet; D007915:Lepidoptera / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D020543:Proteome / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D004527:Egg Proteins; D019476:Insect Proteins; D020543:Proteome; C015753:chorion proteins