Title: Proteome Databases
URL: http://www.proteome.com/databases/index.html
Date Reviewed: 5/22/01
Description:
The proteome databases contain extensive information about three model organisms: S. cerevisiae, S. pombe and C. elegans. In February of 2001, Proteome added the Public Human PSD to this site that allows users to search for information regarding 10,000 human proteins. The site is divided into four sections: YPD, PombePD, WormPD and Human PSD, based upon the organism of interest. Within the section of interest, users can choose to perform one of three searches: quick, full or sequence search. The quick search is the easiest to use and involves typing in a gene name or symbol, and will even accept a partial name or symbol. The full search allows users to search by a multitude of parameters including: biochemical function, cellular role, mutant phenotypes, localization, modification and motif. The sequence search allows users to search by inputting an amino acid sequence of interest. All of the searches return a list of the parameters used in the search, the number of proteins searched, a list of positive hits and a brief description about each protein hit. By clicking on a particular protein, the user is provided with a comprehensive review of the protein. This review includes information about sequence, related proteins, interactions, gene regulation, protein modification, mutations, mutant phenotypes, references and more. The review also includes links to other sites with relevant information.
Strengths:
This site is easy to use, comprehensive and up to date. The layout of the site is very user friendly and the help section is quite informative. The model organism sites are extremely thorough and provide descriptive reviews of every aspect of each protein. The information provided is written in concise phrases with references given for every point with links to PubMed and to full text articles where available.
Weaknesses:
Although the human PSD is supposed to contain records of 10,000 human proteins, it did not find two out of three human proteins that I searched for using the quick search. Using the full search, I was able to find the proteins, however the information provided was extremely limited. A note at the bottom of the search results indicated that the information provided may not be complete due to the ongoing construction of the site. This may change with time, or it may be a consequence of the commercial nature of this site.
Comprehensiveness:
For the model organisms this site was extremely comprehensive. For the human PSD, we will have to wait and see what happens after construction of the site is complete.
Timeliness:
All of the information provided was up to date and thorough. The site is constantly maintained and updated.
Ease of Use:
This site is very user friendly.
Responsiveness:
The links load quickly as do the search results.
Similar or Related Sites:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=OMIM
http://genome-www.stanford.edu/Saccharomyces/
Overall Evaluation: 4 stars
Reviewer: Regina Baker Park
Email: Rbaker@opal.tufts.edu