PHI-base

PHI-base provides curated molecular and biological information on genes that influence pathogen–host interactions for prokaryotic and eukaryotic pathogens (excluding viruses), supporting comparative genomics and functional analysis of host–pathogen relationships.

Key Features:

• Curated data: Records genes experimentally shown to affect pathogen–host interactions and includes reports of gene alterations that do not change disease-related phenotypes.
• Organism scope: Focuses on prokaryotic and eukaryotic pathogens and explicitly excludes viral pathogens.
• Enhanced search and filtering: Version 4.2 provides improved search capabilities and filtering options for querying sequences and metadata.
• PHIB-BLAST: Integrates a BLAST-based sequence similarity search function for identifying homologous sequences within the database.
• PHI-Canto author curation: Supports direct curation of published experimental data into the database via PHI-Canto.

Scientific Applications:

• Gene function analysis: Enables investigation of gene roles in host resistance or susceptibility to pathogens.
• Comparative genomics: Facilitates comparisons across pathogens and hosts, including analyses incorporating gene alterations that do not affect phenotypes.
• Pathogen effector research: Provides information on direct targets of pathogen effector proteins to support studies of molecular mechanisms of host manipulation.

Methodology:

Manual review and validation of data from 2,219 references underpins curation; PHI-base v4.2 integrates PHIBLAST for sequence similarity searches and PHI-Canto for author-driven curation.