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      MEROPS: the peptidase database

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      * , ,
      Nucleic Acids Research
      Oxford University Press

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          Abstract

          Peptidases, their substrates and inhibitors are of great relevance to biology, medicine and biotechnology. The MEROPS database ( http://merops.sanger.ac.uk) aims to fulfil the need for an integrated source of information about these. The database has a hierarchical classification in which homologous sets of peptidases and protein inhibitors are grouped into protein species, which are grouped into families, which are in turn grouped into clans. The classification framework is used for attaching information at each level. An important focus of the database has become distinguishing one peptidase from another through identifying the specificity of the peptidase in terms of where it will cleave substrates and with which inhibitors it will interact. We have collected over 39 000 known cleavage sites in proteins, peptides and synthetic substrates. These allow us to display peptidase specificity and alignments of protein substrates to give an indication of how well a cleavage site is conserved, and thus its probable physiological relevance. While the number of new peptidase families and clans has only grown slowly the number of complete genomes has greatly increased. This has allowed us to add an analysis tool to the relevant species pages to show significant gains and losses of peptidase genes relative to related species.

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          Most cited references11

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          Ensembl 2009

          The Ensembl project (http://www.ensembl.org) is a comprehensive genome information system featuring an integrated set of genome annotation, databases, and other information for chordate, selected model organism and disease vector genomes. As of release 51 (November 2008), Ensembl fully supports 45 species, and three additional species have preliminary support. New species in the past year include orangutan and six additional low coverage mammalian genomes. Major additions and improvements to Ensembl since our previous report include a major redesign of our website; generation of multiple genome alignments and ancestral sequences using the new Enredo-Pecan-Ortheus pipeline and development of our software infrastructure, particularly to support the Ensembl Genomes project (http://www.ensemblgenomes.org/).
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            The Distributed Annotation System

            Background Currently, most genome annotation is curated by centralized groups with limited resources. Efforts to share annotations transparently among multiple groups have not yet been satisfactory. Results Here we introduce a concept called the Distributed Annotation System (DAS). DAS allows sequence annotations to be decentralized among multiple third-party annotators and integrated on an as-needed basis by client-side software. The communication between client and servers in DAS is defined by the DAS XML specification. Annotations are displayed in layers, one per server. Any client or server adhering to the DAS XML specification can participate in the system; we describe a simple prototype client and server example. Conclusions The DAS specification is being used experimentally by Ensembl, WormBase, and the Berkeley Drosophila Genome Project. Continued success will depend on the readiness of the research community to adopt DAS and provide annotations. All components are freely available from the project website .
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              Genomic analysis of the uncultivated marine crenarchaeote Cenarchaeum symbiosum.

              Crenarchaeota are ubiquitous and abundant microbial constituents of soils, sediments, lakes, and ocean waters. To further describe the cosmopolitan nonthermophilic Crenarchaeota, we analyzed the genome sequence of one representative, the uncultivated sponge symbiont Cenarchaeum symbiosum. C. symbiosum genotypes coinhabiting the same host partitioned into two dominant populations, corresponding to previously described a- and b-type ribosomal RNA variants. Although they were syntenic, overlapping a- and b-type ribotype genomes harbored significant variability. A single tiling path comprising the dominant a-type genotype was assembled and used to explore the genomic properties of C. symbiosum and its planktonic relatives. Of 2,066 ORFs, 55.6% matched genes with predicted function from previously sequenced genomes. The remaining genes partitioned between functional RNAs (2.4%) and hypotheticals (42%) with limited homology to known functional genes. The latter category included some genes likely involved in the archaeal-sponge symbiotic association. Conversely, 525 C. symbiosum ORFs were most highly similar to sequences from marine environmental genomic surveys, and they apparently represent orthologous genes from free-living planktonic Crenarchaeota. In total, the C. symbiosum genome was remarkably distinct from those of other known Archaea and shared many core metabolic features in common with its free-living planktonic relatives.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Nucleic Acids Res
                Nucleic Acids Res
                nar
                nar
                Nucleic Acids Research
                Oxford University Press
                0305-1048
                1362-4962
                January 2010
                5 November 2009
                5 November 2009
                : 38
                : Database issue , Database issue
                : D227-D233
                Affiliations
                The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, UK
                Author notes
                *To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +44 1223 494983; Fax: +44 1223 494919; Email: ndr@ 123456sanger.ac.uk
                Article
                gkp971
                10.1093/nar/gkp971
                2808883
                19892822
                fbe3b96e-ed3f-4052-af1e-eaa6d3b71dc9
                © The Author(s) 2009. Published by Oxford University Press.

                This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                : 11 September 2009
                : 12 October 2009
                : 14 October 2009
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                Genetics
                Genetics

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