PaperBLAST – Find papers about a protein or its homologs

 

PaperBLAST

PaperBLAST Hits for LRK54_RS03535 (61 a.a., MASKDINNQS...)

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 43 similar proteins in the literature:

Q5GWU2 Large ribosomal subunit protein uL29 from Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (strain KACC10331 / KXO85)
57% identity, 100% coverage

VP0265 ribosomal protein L29 from Vibrio parahaemolyticus RIMD 2210633
55% identity, 95% coverage

VDA_003447 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Photobacterium damselae subsp. damselae CIP 102761
55% identity, 95% coverage

SO0239 ribosomal protein L29 from Shewanella oneidensis MR-1
53% identity, 95% coverage

WP_038089319 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Acidihalobacter prosperus
53% identity, 85% coverage

NMA0121 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Neisseria meningitidis Z2491
NMB0150 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Neisseria meningitidis MC58
NGO1831 putative 50S ribosomal subunit protein L29 from Neisseria gonorrhoeae FA 1090
54% identity, 90% coverage

HI0785 ribosomal protein L29 (rpL29) from Haemophilus influenzae Rd KW20
53% identity, 95% coverage

PD0445 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Xylella fastidiosa Temecula1
51% identity, 78% coverage

Psyr_4540 Ribosomal protein L29 from Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae B728a
53% identity, 90% coverage

Q9HWE3 Large ribosomal subunit protein uL29 from Pseudomonas aeruginosa (strain ATCC 15692 / DSM 22644 / CIP 104116 / JCM 14847 / LMG 12228 / 1C / PRS 101 / PAO1)
PA4255 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1
53% identity, 90% coverage

7unr1 / Q9HWE3 7unr1
53% identity, 93% coverage

SMc01301 PROBABLE 50S RIBOSOMAL PROTEIN L29 from Sinorhizobium meliloti 1021
46% identity, 85% coverage

AP064_04705 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum
44% identity, 85% coverage

CD16_RS00625 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus
44% identity, 85% coverage

CKC_RS05155 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum CLso-ZC1
44% identity, 85% coverage

B7C60_RS03580 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Vibrio fujianensis
58% identity, 95% coverage

RL29_RHOPA / Q6N4U2 Large ribosomal subunit protein uL29; 50S ribosomal protein L29; RRP-L29 from Rhodopseudomonas palustris (strain ATCC BAA-98 / CGA009) (see paper)
RPA3242 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Rhodopseudomonas palustris CGA009
43% identity, 88% coverage

RpmC / b3312 50S ribosomal subunit protein L29 from Escherichia coli K-12 substr. MG1655 (see 9 papers)
rpmC / P0A7M6 50S ribosomal subunit protein L29 from Escherichia coli (strain K12) (see 6 papers)
RL29_ECOLI / P0A7M6 Large ribosomal subunit protein uL29; 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Escherichia coli (strain K12) (see 15 papers)
5adyY / P0A7M6 Cryo-em structures of the 50s ribosome subunit bound with hflx (see paper)
P0A7M7 Large ribosomal subunit protein uL29 from Escherichia coli O6:H1 (strain CFT073 / ATCC 700928 / UPEC)
NP_417771 50S ribosomal subunit protein L29 from Escherichia coli str. K-12 substr. MG1655
b3312 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Escherichia coli str. K-12 substr. MG1655
ECs4177 50S ribosomal subunit protein L29 from Escherichia coli O157:H7 str. Sakai
55% identity, 95% coverage

SG4007 50S ribosomal subunit protein L29 from Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Gallinarum str. 287/91
P66170 Large ribosomal subunit protein uL29 from Salmonella typhimurium (strain LT2 / SGSC1412 / ATCC 700720)
SPC_3501 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Paratyphi C strain RKS4594
SEN3260 50S ribosomal subunit protein L29 from Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Enteritidis str. P125109
55% identity, 95% coverage

NP_709100 50S ribosomal subunit protein L29 from Shigella flexneri 2a str. 301
55% identity, 95% coverage

Nwi_1372 Ribosomal protein L29 from Nitrobacter winogradskyi Nb-255
38% identity, 90% coverage

bsl5392 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Bradyrhizobium japonicum USDA 110
45% identity, 85% coverage

6spbY / W6V2V8 Pseudomonas aeruginosa 50s ribosome from a clinical isolate with a mutation in ul6 (see paper)
63% identity, 67% coverage

SG2270 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Sodalis glossinidius str. 'morsitans'
53% identity, 95% coverage

bglu_1g02660 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Burkholderia glumae BGR1
55% identity, 73% coverage

YPO0218 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Yersinia pestis CO92
52% identity, 95% coverage

CD0080A 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Clostridium difficile 630
38% identity, 91% coverage

FTN_0247 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Francisella tularensis subsp. novicida U112
40% identity, 86% coverage

FTL_0244 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Francisella tularensis subsp. holarctica
FTH_0239 ribosomal protein L29 from Francisella tularensis subsp. holarctica OSU18
40% identity, 86% coverage

CA_C3125 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824
CAC3125 Ribosomal protein L29 from Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824
39% identity, 85% coverage

A1JS26 Large ribosomal subunit protein uL29 from Yersinia enterocolitica serotype O:8 / biotype 1B (strain NCTC 13174 / 8081)
52% identity, 95% coverage

9c4gx / A0A2B7JB12 Cutibacterium acnes 50s ribosomal subunit with clindamycin bound (see paper)
40% identity, 83% coverage

A1S_3073 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Acinetobacter baumannii ATCC 17978
AbA118F_2933 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Acinetobacter baumannii
42% identity, 92% coverage

RL29_BACSU / P12873 Large ribosomal subunit protein uL29; 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Bacillus subtilis (strain 168) (see paper)
8buuY / P12873 8buuY (see paper)
BSU01240 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Bacillus subtilis subsp. subtilis str. 168
39% identity, 86% coverage

FN1637 LSU ribosomal protein L29P from Fusobacterium nucleatum subsp. nucleatum ATCC 25586
38% identity, 95% coverage

D4G3L1 Large ribosomal subunit protein uL29 from Bacillus subtilis subsp. natto (strain BEST195)
39% identity, 81% coverage

MHO_2900 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Mycoplasma hominis
35% identity, 91% coverage

SAUSA300_2196 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus USA300_FPR3757
38% identity, 77% coverage

SACOL2231 ribosomal protein L29 from Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus COL
Q6GEJ1 Large ribosomal subunit protein uL29 from Staphylococcus aureus (strain MRSA252)
SA2039 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus N315
SAOUHSC_02504 ribosomal protein L29 from Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus NCTC 8325
SERP1823 ribosomal protein L29 from Staphylococcus epidermidis RP62A
EKM74_RS05590, USA300HOU_RS12135 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Staphylococcus aureus
38% identity, 81% coverage

6v39X / B7IA31 6v39X (see paper)
41% identity, 94% coverage

lmo2624 ribosomal protein L29 from Listeria monocytogenes EGD-e
Q71WF4 Large ribosomal subunit protein uL29 from Listeria monocytogenes serotype 4b (strain F2365)
40% identity, 90% coverage

P58085 Large ribosomal subunit protein uL29 from Aeropyrum pernix (strain ATCC 700893 / DSM 11879 / JCM 9820 / NBRC 100138 / K1)
42% identity, 80% coverage

NCgl0495 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 13032
cg0603 50S ribosomal protein L29 from Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 13032
50% identity, 61% 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 798,070 different protein sequences to 1,261,478 scientific articles. Searches against EuropePMC were last performed on May 12 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