Main features of SWISS-PROT

Annotation:

In addition to the sequence data, all the sequences include information such as function of the protein, its domains, its structure, any post-translational modifications, reference journal and authors, etc. These annotations are based on publications that report new sequence data, review articles and external experts, who have been recruited to send us their comments and updates concerning specific groups of proteins.

Minimum redundancy:

Many sequence databases contain, for a given protein sequence, separate entries which correspond to different literature reports. SWISS-PROT tries as much as possible to merge all these data so as to minimize the redundancy of the database. If conflicts exist between various sequencing reports, they are indicated in the feature table of the corresponding entry.

Cross-referenced to other biomolecular databases:

SWISS-PROT is currently cross-referenced with 30 different databases. These range from sequence-related databases to specialized database collections. Cross-references are provided in the form of pointers to information related to SWISS-PROT entries and found in data collections other than SWISS-PROT.