Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 2, 2026

Heuristic Mining of Hierarchical Genotypes and Accessory Genome Loci in Bacterial Populations
Published on: December 7, 2021
Expert curation in UniProtKB: a case study on dealing with conflicting and erroneous data
Sylvain Poux1, Michele Magrane, Cecilia N Arighi
1SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Centre Medical Universitaire, 1 rue Michel Servet, 1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, UK, Protein Information Resource, University of Delaware, 15 Innovation Way, Suite 205, Newark, DE 19711, USA and Protein Information Resource, Georgetown University Medical Center, 3300 Whitehaven Street North West, Suite 1200, Washington, DC 20007, USA.
UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot ensures data accuracy through expert curation and literature review. This study highlights how they manage and report conflicting information, emphasizing community collaboration for error-free biological databases.
Area of Science:
- Biotechnology
- Bioinformatics
- Molecular Biology
Background:
- Knowledgebases like UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot are crucial for scientific research.
- Studies have identified errors in these databases, stemming from both curation and literature.
- Ensuring the accuracy of biological information is paramount for reliable research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To describe the curation procedures of UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot.
- To detail the methods for reporting conflicting information within the database.
- To emphasize the importance of inter-resource collaboration and user contributions for data accuracy.
Main Methods:
- Expert curation of protein information.
- Literature review and curator-evaluated computational analysis.
- Case study using sirtuin-5 to illustrate annotation and conflict reporting.
Main Results:
- UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot employs a rigorous curation process.
- Conflicting information is systematically reported within the database.
- The sirtuin-5 case exemplifies the complexities of biological data curation.
Conclusions:
- Collaboration between scientific resources is vital for maintaining curation consistency.
- User community contributions significantly aid in identifying and correcting errors.
- Maintaining accurate and reliable biological databases is an ongoing, collaborative effort.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
The Unfolded Protein Response
Covalently Linked Protein Regulators
These groups modify specific amino acids in a protein....
Conservation of Protein Domains Over Different Proteins
A limited set of protein domains often duplicate and recombine during evolution. These domains can be organized in different combinations to...
Multi-species Conserved Sequences
Although the genome of each species varies greatly from each other, a few sequences are highly conserved. Such conserved...
Improving Translational Accuracy
Protein Networks
These interactions can be represented through maps depicting protein-protein interaction networks, represented as nodes and edges. Nodes are circles that are representative of a protein,...

