Protein kinase resource: an integrated environment for phosphorylation research

The protein kinase superfamily is an important group of enzymes controlling cellular signaling cascades. The increasing amount of available experimental data provides a foundation for deeper understanding of details of signaling systems and the underlying cellular processes. Here, we describe the Protein Kinase Resource, an integrated online service that provides access to information relevant to cell signaling and enables kinase researchers to visualize and analyze the data directly in an online environment. The data set is synchronized with Uniprot and Protein Data Bank (PDB) databases and is regularly updated and verified. Additional annotation includes interactive display of domain composition, cross-references between orthologs and functional mapping to OMIM records. The Protein Kinase Resource provides an integrated view of the protein kinase superfamily by linking data with their visual representation. Thus, human kinases can be mapped onto the human kinome tree via an interactive display. Sequence and structure data can be easily displayed using applications developed for the PKR and integrated with the website and the underlying database. Advanced search mechanisms, such as multiparameter lookup, sequence pattern, and blast search, enable fast access to the desired information, while statistics tools provide the ability to analyze the relationships among the kinases under study. The integration of data presentation and visualization implemented in the Protein Kinase Resource can be adapted by other online providers of scientific data and should become an effective way to access available experimental information.