Hints for Retrieving Sequence Database Entries 2. PIR Network Request Service Command Summary 1. The very first thing to appreciate about the sequence databases is that the most commonly sought information for every entry is contained in the title field. The title field contains the protein name, the source organism and the EC number if it's an enzyme. On the other hand, the keyword field contains information that does not necessarily duplicate what is in the title.
Most searches are for information contained in the title field.
The most common reason for a keyword search failure is that the protein name is what is being used and that can be found in the title, not the keyword list. The keywords used by the PIR correspond closely to the MESH terms of the National Library of Medicine. One very inappropriate type of request is the following. The USE command is used to restrict searches to particular databases or to entries added or modified within a particular time period. Such restrictions apply to all subsequent search commands in the same request and need not be used only in queries.