PaperBLAST – Find papers about a protein or its homologs

 

PaperBLAST

PaperBLAST Hits for CCNA_02315 (64 a.a., MKNRLKVLRA...)

Other sequence analysis tools:

Find functional residues: SitesBLAST

Search for conserved domains

Find the best match in UniProt

Compare to protein structures

Predict transmenbrane helices: Phobius

Predict protein localization: PSORTb

Find homologs in fast.genomics

Fitness BLAST: loading...

Found 67 similar proteins in the literature:

CCNA_02315 transcriptional regulator, Cro/CI family from Caulobacter crescentus NA1000
100% identity, 100% coverage

PA4077 probable transcriptional regulator from Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1
PA14_11150 putative transcriptional regulator from Pseudomonas aeruginosa UCBPP-PA14
73% identity, 91% coverage

MJ0272 repressor protein, putative (yorfE) from Methanocaldococcus jannaschii DSM 2661
65% identity, 76% coverage

TK1339 predicted transcription regulator, containing DNA-binding HTH domain from Thermococcus kodakaraensis KOD1
64% identity, 98% coverage

TEMA_35430 helix-turn-helix transcriptional regulator from Terrisporobacter mayombei
58% identity, 91% coverage

HMPREF0421_21055 helix-turn-helix transcriptional regulator from Gardnerella vaginalis ATCC 14019
57% identity, 90% coverage

GBAA_2523 helix-turn-helix transcriptional regulator from Bacillus anthracis str. 'Ames Ancestor'
57% identity, 91% coverage

HMPREF0424_0517 DNA-binding protein from Gardnerella vaginalis 409-05
57% identity, 90% coverage

BA0391 DNA-binding protein from Bacillus anthracis str. Ames
53% identity, 94% coverage

LMOf2365_0435 DNA-binding protein from Listeria monocytogenes str. 4b F2365
lmo0416 similar to putative transcription regulator from Listeria monocytogenes EGD-e
57% identity, 94% coverage

PAP_06600 helix-turn-helix transcriptional regulator from Palaeococcus pacificus DY20341
58% identity, 98% coverage

lmo2408 similar to repressor protein from Listeria monocytogenes EGD-e
48% identity, 96% coverage

BTF1_25170 helix-turn-helix transcriptional regulator from Bacillus thuringiensis HD-789
53% identity, 88% coverage

BLi04122 putative protein from Bacillus licheniformis DSM 13
51% identity, 66% coverage

2xiuA / Q8VL32 High resolution structure of mtsl-tagged cylr2. (see paper)
56% identity, 89% coverage

EF0524 transcriptional regulator, Cro/CI family from Enterococcus faecalis V583
56% identity, 89% coverage

MUS_4114 helix-turn-helix transcriptional regulator from Bacillus velezensis YAU B9601-Y2
50% identity, 96% coverage

RBAM_034550 putative transcriptional regulator from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens FZB42
50% identity, 96% coverage

MSMEG_5542 transcriptional regulator, HTH_3 family protein from Mycobacterium smegmatis str. MC2 155
50% identity, 69% coverage

SAG0169 transcriptional regulator, Cro/CI family from Streptococcus agalactiae 2603V/R
58% identity, 88% coverage

AF1627 repressor protein from Archaeoglobus fulgidus DSM 4304
WP_010879124 helix-turn-helix transcriptional regulator from Archaeoglobus fulgidus DSM 4304
53% identity, 85% coverage

TEGL_05860 helix-turn-helix transcriptional regulator from Terrisporobacter glycolicus ATCC 14880 = DSM 1288
57% identity, 80% coverage

GALLO_RS00675 helix-turn-helix transcriptional regulator from Streptococcus gallolyticus UCN34
52% identity, 91% coverage

MOV58_01130 helix-turn-helix transcriptional regulator from Staphylococcus hominis
48% identity, 90% coverage

BH0460 transcriptional regulator from Bacillus halodurans C-125
49% identity, 82% coverage

SP_2119 transcriptional regulator, putative from Streptococcus pneumoniae TIGR4
49% identity, 89% coverage

SPD_1947 transcriptional regulator, putative from Streptococcus pneumoniae D39
49% identity, 93% coverage

LLKF_0381 Cro/CI family transcriptional regulator from Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis KF147
48% identity, 62% coverage

M6_Spy1106 Transcriptional regulator, Cro/CI family from Streptococcus pyogenes MGAS10394
46% identity, 80% coverage

SPy1386 putative transcriptional regulator protein from Streptococcus pyogenes M1 GAS
46% identity, 86% coverage

SCA03_05280 helix-turn-helix transcriptional regulator from Streptomyces cacaoi
48% identity, 53% coverage

lmo0749 lmo0749 from Listeria monocytogenes EGD-e
44% identity, 93% coverage

AF1793 repressor protein from Archaeoglobus fulgidus DSM 4304
48% identity, 86% coverage

CD0370 putative transcriptional regulator from Clostridium difficile 630
50% identity, 91% coverage

CAC2495 Predicted transcriptional regulator from Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824
48% identity, 94% coverage

SAG0815 transcriptional regulator, Cro/CI family from Streptococcus agalactiae 2603V/R
47% identity, 85% coverage

gbs0833 Unknown from Streptococcus agalactiae NEM316
45% identity, 85% coverage

SACOL0420 transcriptional regulator, Cro/CI family from Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus COL
SAOUHSC_00331 hypothetical protein from Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus NCTC 8325
SAUSA300_0350 transcriptional regulator, Cro/CI family-related protein from Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus USA300_FPR3757
46% identity, 96% coverage

CAC2473 Predicted transcriptional regulator from Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824
48% identity, 77% coverage

SAPIG0429 helix-turn-helix transcriptional regulator from Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus ST398
48% identity, 96% coverage

SA0337 hypothetical protein from Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus N315
46% identity, 96% coverage

EF0869 transcriptional regulator, Cro/CI family from Enterococcus faecalis V583
52% identity, 68% coverage

BA1022 DNA-binding protein from Bacillus anthracis str. Ames
43% identity, 79% coverage

MW0325 ORFID:MW0325~hypothetical protein, similar to transcriptional repressor from Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus MW2
47% identity, 90% coverage

BLi00946 YazB from Bacillus licheniformis DSM 13
47% identity, 88% coverage

M28_Spy1636 transcriptional regulator, Cro/CI family from Streptococcus pyogenes MGAS6180
46% identity, 88% coverage

GTNG_1575 Transcriptional regulator PBSX family from Geobacillus thermodenitrificans NG80-2
40% identity, 94% coverage

Spy49_1597c Putative transcription regulator from Streptococcus pyogenes NZ131
SPy1934 putative transcription regulator from Streptococcus pyogenes M1 GAS
46% identity, 88% coverage

SAG0251 transcriptional regulator, Cro/CI family from Streptococcus agalactiae 2603V/R
46% identity, 79% coverage

SXYL_00212 helix-turn-helix transcriptional regulator from Staphylococcus xylosus
43% identity, 92% coverage

CD3139 putative transcriptional regulator from Clostridium difficile 630
43% identity, 92% coverage

BC0690 Transcriptional regulator, PBSX family from Bacillus cereus ATCC 14579
39% identity, 92% coverage

SM12261_0720 helix-turn-helix transcriptional regulator from Streptococcus mitis NCTC 12261
42% identity, 77% coverage

SSV_2224 helix-turn-helix transcriptional regulator from Streptococcus sanguinis
42% identity, 77% coverage

CPF_1032 DNA-binding protein from Clostridium perfringens ATCC 13124
40% identity, 84% coverage

LSEI_1967 Transcriptional regulator, xre family from Lactobacillus casei ATCC 334
38% identity, 78% coverage

CD2308 putative transcriptional regulator from Clostridium difficile 630
C3L34_12490, HMPREF0220_1282 helix-turn-helix transcriptional regulator from Clostridioides difficile
43% identity, 85% coverage

CAC1463 Predicted transcriptional regulator from Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824
48% identity, 75% coverage

SAG1128 transcriptional regulator, Cro/CI family from Streptococcus agalactiae 2603V/R
40% identity, 92% coverage

ID870_03750 helix-turn-helix transcriptional regulator from Streptococcus agalactiae CJB111
40% identity, 76% coverage

DR2259 transcriptional regulator, HTH_3 family from Deinococcus radiodurans R1
41% identity, 77% coverage

PuuR / VIMSS3563352 PuuR regulator of Spermidine biosynthesis, effector Putrescine from Fervidobacterium nodosum Rt17-B1
35% identity, 36% coverage

CHF17_RS00770 helix-turn-helix transcriptional regulator from Streptococcus agalactiae
39% identity, 87% coverage

PuuR / VIMSS5694208 PuuR regulator of Spermidine biosynthesis, effector Putrescine from Thermosipho africanus TCF52B
33% identity, 34% coverage

BA2318 DNA-binding protein from Bacillus anthracis str. Ames
40% identity, 76% coverage

SAR0704 putative DNA-binding protein from Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus MRSA252
38% identity, 50% coverage

LMRG_01515 helix-turn-helix transcriptional regulator from Listeria monocytogenes 10403S
40% identity, 93% coverage

New Search

For advice on how to use these tools together, see Interactive tools for functional annotation of bacterial genomes.

Statistics

The PaperBLAST database links 793,807 different protein sequences to 1,259,118 scientific articles. Searches against EuropePMC were last performed on March 13 2025.

How It Works

PaperBLAST builds a database of protein sequences that are linked to scientific articles. These links come from automated text searches against the articles in EuropePMC and from manually-curated information from GeneRIF, UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot, BRENDA, CAZy (as made available by dbCAN), BioLiP, CharProtDB, MetaCyc, EcoCyc, TCDB, REBASE, the Fitness Browser, and a subset of the European Nucleotide Archive with the /experiment tag. Given this database and a protein sequence query, PaperBLAST uses protein-protein BLAST to find similar sequences with E < 0.001.

To build the database, we query EuropePMC with locus tags, with RefSeq protein identifiers, and with UniProt accessions. We obtain the locus tags from RefSeq or from MicrobesOnline. We use queries of the form "locus_tag AND genus_name" to try to ensure that the paper is actually discussing that gene. Because EuropePMC indexes most recent biomedical papers, even if they are not open access, some of the links may be to papers that you cannot read or that our computers cannot read. We query each of these identifiers that appears in the open access part of EuropePMC, as well as every locus tag that appears in the 500 most-referenced genomes, so that a gene may appear in the PaperBLAST results even though none of the papers that mention it are open access. We also incorporate text-mined links from EuropePMC that link open access articles to UniProt or RefSeq identifiers. (This yields some additional links because EuropePMC uses different heuristics for their text mining than we do.)

For every article that mentions a locus tag, a RefSeq protein identifier, or a UniProt accession, we try to select one or two snippets of text that refer to the protein. If we cannot get access to the full text, we try to select a snippet from the abstract, but unfortunately, unique identifiers such as locus tags are rarely provided in abstracts.

PaperBLAST also incorporates manually-curated protein functions:

Except for GeneRIF and ENA, the curated entries include a short curated description of the protein's function. For entries from BioLiP, the protein's function may not be known beyond binding to the ligand. Many of these entries also link to articles in PubMed.

For more information see the PaperBLAST paper (mSystems 2017) or the code. You can download PaperBLAST's database here.

Changes to PaperBLAST since the paper was written:

Many of these changes are described in Interactive tools for functional annotation of bacterial genomes.

Secrets

PaperBLAST cannot provide snippets for many of the papers that are published in non-open-access journals. This limitation applies even if the paper is marked as "free" on the publisher's web site and is available in PubmedCentral or EuropePMC. If a journal that you publish in is marked as "secret," please consider publishing elsewhere.

Omissions from the PaperBLAST Database

Many important articles are missing from PaperBLAST, either because the article's full text is not in EuropePMC (as for many older articles), or because the paper does not mention a protein identifier such as a locus tag, or because of PaperBLAST's heuristics. If you notice an article that characterizes a protein's function but is missing from PaperBLAST, please notify the curators at UniProt or add an entry to GeneRIF. Entries in either of these databases will eventually be incorporated into PaperBLAST. Note that to add an entry to UniProt, you will need to find the UniProt identifier for the protein. If the protein is not already in UniProt, you can ask them to create an entry. To add an entry to GeneRIF, you will need an NCBI Gene identifier, but unfortunately many prokaryotic proteins in RefSeq do not have corresponding Gene identifers.

References

PaperBLAST: Text-mining papers for information about homologs.
M. N. Price and A. P. Arkin (2017). mSystems, 10.1128/mSystems.00039-17.

Europe PMC in 2017.
M. Levchenko et al (2017). Nucleic Acids Research, 10.1093/nar/gkx1005.

Gene indexing: characterization and analysis of NLM's GeneRIFs.
J. A. Mitchell et al (2003). AMIA Annu Symp Proc 2003:460-464.

UniProt: the universal protein knowledgebase.
The UniProt Consortium (2016). Nucleic Acids Research, 10.1093/nar/gkw1099.

BRENDA in 2017: new perspectives and new tools in BRENDA.
S. Placzek et al (2017). Nucleic Acids Research, 10.1093/nar/gkw952.

The EcoCyc database: reflecting new knowledge about Escherichia coli K-12.
I. M. Keeseler et al (2016). Nucleic Acids Research, 10.1093/nar/gkw1003.

The MetaCyc database of metabolic pathways and enzymes.
R. Caspi et al (2018). Nucleic Acids Research, 10.1093/nar/gkx935.

CharProtDB: a database of experimentally characterized protein annotations.
R. Madupu et al (2012). Nucleic Acids Research, 10.1093/nar/gkr1133.

The carbohydrate-active enzymes database (CAZy) in 2013.
V. Lombard et al (2014). Nucleic Acids Research, 10.1093/nar/gkt1178.

The Transporter Classification Database (TCDB): recent advances
M. H. Saier, Jr. et al (2016). Nucleic Acids Research, 10.1093/nar/gkv1103.

REBASE - a database for DNA restriction and modification: enzymes, genes and genomes.
R. J. Roberts et al (2015). Nucleic Acids Research, 10.1093/nar/gku1046.

Deep annotation of protein function across diverse bacteria from mutant phenotypes.
M. N. Price et al (2016). bioRxiv, 10.1101/072470.

by Morgan Price, Arkin group
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory