- Communication -

Volume 4

Full article

Thermo-search: lifestyle and thermostability analysis

Savio T. Farias^1,*, Marx G. van der Linden², Thais G. Rêgo², Demétrius A. M. Araújo², Maria Christina M. Bonato²

¹ Departamento de Biologia Geral, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brasil; Email: stfarias@yahoo.com.br
² Laboratório de Bioinformática, Departamento de Biologia Molecular, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Brasil

*  corresponding author


Edited by E. Wingender; received May 18, 2004; revised May 25, 2004; accepted May 26, 2004; published May 31, 2004

Abstract

Thermo-search is an online web tool for the analysis of proteomes and individual proteins according to the ratio of two couplets of preferred and avoided amino acids in hyperthermophiles, thermophiles and mesophiles. It displays the ratio between glutamic acid plus lysine (E+K) and glutamine plus histidine (Q+H), which is higher in thermophilic proteomes and thermostable proteins than in mesophilic proteomes and thermo labile proteins. Thermo-search allows a rapid screen of the CRM database for thermostable proteins in their functional categories and a visualization of the (E+K)/(Q+H) average ratio between organisms, allowing a comparison of their lifestyles.

Key words: thermostability, amino acids, hyperthermophiles and lifestyle