EASY-an Expert Analysis SYstem for interpreting database search outputs

With the ever-increasing need to handle large volumes of sequence data efficiently and reliably, we have developed the EASY system for performing combined protein sequence and pattern database searches. EASY runs searches simultaneously and distils results into a concise 1-line diagnosis. By bringing together results of several different analyses, EASY provides a rapid means of evaluating biological significance, minimising the risk of inferring false relationships, for example from relying exclusively on top BLAST hits. The program has been tested using a variety of protein families and was instrumental in resolving family assignments in a major update of the PRINTS database.