BRENDA in 2019: a European ELIXIR core data resource

Area of Science:

• Biochemistry and Bioinformatics
• Enzymology
• Data Curation

Background:

• The BRENDA enzyme database is a primary resource for enzyme and enzyme-ligand information.
• It contains millions of manually curated data points from scientific literature, supplemented by computational methods.
• Existing features include enzyme overviews, disease data, protein sequences, and structural information.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present the latest developments and enhancements in the BRENDA enzyme database.
• To improve data accessibility and search functionalities for researchers.
• To expand the scope of information available within the database.

Main Methods:

• Manual evaluation and extraction of data from scientific literature.
• Application of text and data mining, data integration, and prediction algorithms.
• Development of new features such as revised ligand summary pages, structure similarity/isomer search, and plant-specific word maps.

Main Results:

• The database now contains 4.3 million data entries for approximately 84,000 enzymes.
• New functionalities include improved ligand and structure searches and integrated reaction data (BKMS-react).
• Introduction of plant-specific word maps and an organism summary page enhances data visualization and retrieval.

Conclusions:

• The BRENDA database continues to be a vital, evolving resource for enzyme research.
• Recent updates significantly improve data integration, search capabilities, and user experience.
• The establishment of the new enzyme class EC 7 for 'translocases' reflects advancements in enzyme classification.