iRefWeb

iRefWeb provides an integrated database of protein-protein interaction (PPI) data aggregated from major primary databases to enable exploration and analysis of protein interaction networks.

Key Features:

• iRefIndex: identifies redundant protein sequences across multiple source databases and consolidates records that reference the same peptide sequences.
• Identifier reconciliation: resolves discrepancies in data identifiers across different primary databases to produce unified interaction records.
• Consolidated PPI dataset: aggregates interaction records from major primary databases into a non-redundant collection of PPIs.
• Evidence attribution: stores supporting evidence metadata for each interaction record.
• Provenance and annotation comparison: captures provenance information and enables comparison of annotations provided by different curation teams.

Scientific Applications:

• Disease-associated protein discovery: identify proteins or genes potentially involved in a disease and examine their protein interactions.
• Co-expression to PPI analysis: determine whether groups of co-expressed genes correspond to proteins that physically interact.
• Network-based mechanism and target analysis: support analyses for understanding disease mechanisms, identifying potential therapeutic targets, and elucidating biological pathways.

Methodology:

iRefIndex detects redundant protein sequences across databases and consolidates records by reconciling disparate database identifiers; records include provenance metadata to enable comparison of curator annotations.