EC-BLAST: a tool to automatically search and compare enzyme reactions

摘要

A major challenge in biological research is to understand, capture and describe the biological functions of proteins. Of all known protein functions, enzyme chemical reactions are perhaps the best described, having been manually curated by members of the Enzyme Commission (EC)~(1,2). Although the EC nomenclature is widely employed as an invaluable reference description of enzyme function, it cannot readily be used for an automated quantitative comparison of reactions~(3–9). Such comparisons are essential for assigning EC numbers automatically and for gaining an overview of the world of biochemical reactions. Just as methods for comparing protein and DNA sequences have improved our basic understanding of evolution, a method allowing quantitative comparison of enzyme reactions should provide a firm foundation from which to explore the evolution of enzyme function and to facilitate the design of new enzymes.