Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 6.
Part of the UniProtKB entry Q86H65 displayed at www.uniprot.org/.
This protein has clear orthologs in other species, but none have been characterized
yet. This makes it belong to the “Uncharacterized Protein Family”, which is men-
tioned in the general annotation field.
2.2.4. Functional annotation
The holy grail of annotating a proteome is to be able to know the role of
each of the protein entities. This goal is far from being reached, even in
model organisms that have been the target of the largest number of con-
certed or individual research initiatives (i.e.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
and
Escherichia coli
). Therefore, the process of providing functional annota-
tion is a never-ending process that is time-consuming, yet nevertheless a
priority for the UniProt Consortium. Although Gene Ontology (GO)
terms can be used to summarize some functional aspects of a protein,
13
additional textual descriptions often remain essential for a comprehensive
overview.
