The SWISS-PROT protein sequence data bank, recent developments

SWISS-PROT [1] is an annotated protein sequence database established in 1986 and maintained collaboratively, since 1988, by the Department of Medical Biochemistry of the University of Geneva and the EMBL Data Library [2]. The SWISS-PROT protein sequence data bank consist of sequence entries. Sequence entries are composed of different lines types, each with their own format. For standardization purposes the format of SWISS-PROT [3] follows as closely as possible that of the EMBL Nucleotide Sequence Database. A sample SWISS-PROT entry is shown in Figure 1. The SWISS-PROT database distinguishes itself from other protein sequence databases by three distinct criteria: