title: ORCAN-a web-based meta-server for real-time detection and functional annotation of orthologs.
abstract: ORCAN (ORtholog sCANner) is a web-based meta-server for one-click evolutionary and functional annotation of protein sequences. The server combines information from the most popular orthology-prediction resources, including four tools and four online databases. Functional annotation utilizes five additional comparisons between the query and identified homologs, including: sequence similarity, protein domain architectures, functional motifs, Gene Ontology term assignments and a list of associated articles. Furthermore, the server uses a plurality-based rating system to evaluate the orthology relationships and to rank the reference proteins by their evolutionary and functional relevance to the query. Using a dataset of ∼1 million true yeast orthologs as a sample reference set, we show that combining multiple orthology-prediction tools in ORCAN increases the sensitivity and precision by 1-2 percent points.
  
  
  
  The service is available for free at http://www.combio.pl/orcan/ .
  
  
  
  wmk@amu.edu.pl.
  
  
  
  Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
authors.forename: Andrzej
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zielezinski
authors.forename: Michal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dziubek
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sliski
authors.forename: Wojciech M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Karlowski
mesh_terms: D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D063990:Gene Ontology; D020407:Internet; D000072417:Protein Domains; D020539:Sequence Analysis, Protein / Q000379:methods*; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012984:Software; D015003:Yeasts / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism