Collaborative annotation of genes and proteins between UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot and dictyBase

• DOI: 10.1093/database/bap016
• Publication Date: 2009-10-15T20:44:43Z
• Authors: P. Gaudet; L. Lane; P. Fey; A. Bridge; S. Poux; A. Auchincloss; K. Axelsen; S. Braconi Quintaje; E. Boutet; P. Brown; E. Coudert; R.S. Datta; W.C. de Lima; T. de Oliveira Lima; S. Duvaud; N. Farriol-Mathis; S. Ferro Rojas; M. Feuermann; A. Gateau; U. Hinz; C. Hulo; J. James; S. Jimenez; F. Jungo; G. Keller; P. Lemercier; D. Lieberherr; M. Moinat; A. Nikolskaya; I. Pedruzzi; C. Rivoire; B. Roechert; M. Schneider; E. Stanley; M. Tognolli; K. Sjolander; L. Bougueleret; R.L. Chisholm; A. Bairoch
• Keywords: 0303 health sciences; 03 medical and health sciences; Original Article; ddc:576

UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot, a curated protein database, and dictyBase, the Model Organism Database for Dictyostelium discoideum, have established a collaboration to improve data sharing. One of the major steps in this effort was the 'Dicty annotation marathon', a week-long exercise with 30 annotators aimed at achieving a major increase in the number of D. discoideum proteins represented in UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot. The marathon led to the annotation of over 1000 D. discoideum proteins in UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot. Concomitantly, there were a large number of updates in dictyBase concerning gene symbols, protein names and gene models. This exercise demonstrates how UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot can work in very close cooperation with model organism databases and how the annotation of proteins can be accelerated through those collaborations.