Sandra Orchard - Unifying Protein Complex Curation across the Diversity of Species
Channel: Biocuration Conference 2023
Date: 2023-06-21

*Session:* April 25 - Applications 2 - 04

*Abstract:* Proteins are essential for building cellular structures and as the tools that make the cell function. However, proteins do not operate in isolation and often form molecular machines in which several proteins bind together and with other biomolecules to act as a single entity called a molecular complex. This provides tremendous versatility and regulatory capacities, since by changing a single component of the complex, its function can be dramatically altered. Protein complexes often also form more stable structures than isolated proteins, and their formation creates new active sites as protein chains from different molecules assemble in close proximity. It is therefore of crucial importance to know the composition of complexes and study them as discrete functional entities in order to truly understand how cellular processes work. The Complex Portal (www.ebi.ac.uk/complexportal) is an encyclopaedic database that collates and summarizes information on stable, macromolecular complexes of known function from the scientific literature through manual curation. Complex Portal curators have now completed a first draft of all the stable molecular complexes from the gut bacteria Escherichia coli and through collaboration with the Saccharomyces Genome Database, also of the complexome of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Work is ongoing to produce a reference set of human protein complexes and also, in association with FlyBase, for the model organism Drosophila melanogaster. Protein complex evolution can now be shown to occur through the gain and loss of subunits and a better understanding of this process could improve predictions of, for example, the phenotypic effects of mutations and variants causative of change of function or susceptibility to disease. We invite other data resources, active in the biocuration of other organisms or biological processes to contribute to this collaborative effort and further increase the biodiversity of molecular machines described in the Complex Portal and, via import to UniProt and other resources, enhance our understanding of the inter-dependence of proteins within an organism.