UniProt BLAST

UniProt BLAST performs protein sequence similarity searches against the UniProt protein sequence database to identify homologous proteins and support comparative genomics and proteomics analyses.

Key Features:

• Extensive Sequence Database: UniProt contains over 80 million protein sequences and has expanded accession numbers from six to ten characters to ensure unique identifiers.
• Proteome Identifier: A proteome identifier distinguishes specific assemblies of species and subspecies to trace sequence provenance among identical entries from different genome projects.
• Annotation Score System: Each UniProt entry is assigned an annotation score reflecting the relative amount of knowledge about the protein, aiding selection of well-characterized proteins for comparative analysis.

Scientific Applications:

• Comparative Genomic Analysis: Compare protein sequences across species or strains to study evolutionary relationships and functional conservation.
• Protein Characterization: Use annotation scores to select well-documented proteins for functional and interaction studies.
• Data Provenance Tracking: Use proteome identifiers to trace sequence origins for validation and ensuring data integrity.

Methodology:

UniProt BLAST uses the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) algorithm to perform protein sequence similarity searches and identify homologous sequences.