The Protein Information Resource (PIR; http://wwwnbrf.georgetown.edu/pir/ ) supports research on molecular evolution, functional genomics, and computational biology by maintaining a comprehensive, non-redundant, well-organized and freely available protein sequence database. Since 1988 the database has been maintained collaboratively by PIR-International, an international association of data collection centers cooperating to develop this resource during a period of explosive growth in new sequence data and new computer technologies. The PIR Protein Sequence Database entries are classified into superfamilies, families and homology domains, for which sequence alignments are available. Full-scale family classification supports comparative genomics research, aids sequence annotation, assists database organization and improves database integrity. The PIR WWW server supports direct on-line sequence similarity searches, information retrieval, and knowledge discovery by providing the Protein S...
Winona C. Barker, John S. Garavelli, Daniel H. Haf