PaperBLAST – Find papers about a protein or its homologs

 

PaperBLAST

PaperBLAST Hits for metacyc::G12WB-160-MONOMER energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane protein EcfT (Clostridioides difficile (strain 630)) (267 a.a., MLKDITIGQY...)

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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

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Found 75 similar proteins in the literature:

cbiQ / Q18CJ3 energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane protein EcfT from Clostridioides difficile (strain 630) (see 10 papers)
CD0102 ABC transporter, permease protein from Clostridium difficile 630
100% identity, 100% coverage

SFBM_1365 energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane component T family protein from Candidatus Arthromitus sp. SFB-mouse-Japan
44% identity, 96% coverage

Halsa_1890 energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane component T family protein from Halanaerobium hydrogeniformans
55% identity, 93% coverage

ECFT_LACP3 / Q035B4 Energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane protein EcfT; ECF transporter T component EcfT from Lacticaseibacillus paracasei (strain ATCC 334 / BCRC 17002 / CCUG 31169 / CIP 107868 / KCTC 3260 / NRRL B-441) (Lactobacillus paracasei) (see paper)
LSEI_2472 ABC-type cobalt transport system, permease component CbiQ related transporter from Lactobacillus casei ATCC 334
45% identity, 93% coverage

ECFT_BACSU / P70972 Energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane protein EcfT; ECF transporter T component EcfT from Bacillus subtilis (strain 168) (see paper)
BSU01470 putative permease from Bacillus subtilis subsp. subtilis str. 168
50% identity, 97% coverage

BC0162 Cobalt transport protein cbiQ from Bacillus cereus ATCC 14579
48% identity, 89% coverage

lmo2599 highly similar to B. subtilis YbaF protein from Listeria monocytogenes EGD-e
47% identity, 89% coverage

lmo2634 similar to B. subtilis YbaF protein from Listeria monocytogenes EGD-e
43% identity, 97% coverage

LMRG_02179 cobalt transport protein from Listeria monocytogenes 10403S
43% identity, 97% coverage

IUJ47_RS04685 energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane component T family protein from Enterococcus faecalis
46% identity, 89% coverage

EF0239 cobalt transport family protein from Enterococcus faecalis V583
46% identity, 89% coverage

TC 3.A.1.26.10 / I7BV49 Energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane protein EcfT, component of ATP-dependent folic acid uptake porter, FolT/EcfT/EcfA1/EcfA2 from Enterococcus faecalis D32
46% identity, 88% coverage

LSA1735 Putative cobalt ABC transporter, membrane-spanning subunit from Lactobacillus sakei subsp. sakei 23K
45% identity, 93% coverage

ECFT_LACLM / A2RI03 Energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane protein EcfT; ECF transporter T component EcfT from Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris (strain MG1363) (see paper)
TC 3.A.1.25.4 / A2RI03 Energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane protein EcfT, component of The biotin uptake system, BioMNY. The 3-d structure of the EcfS subunit, BioY, at 2.1Å resolution is known (Berntsson et al., 2012). BioY and ThiT from L. lactis from Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris (strain MG1363)
44% identity, 93% coverage

TC 3.A.1.26.9 / TC 3.A.1.28.2 / Q03PY7 Energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane protein EcfT, component of The folate transporter, FolT/EcfAA''T (The 3-d structure is known to 3.0Å resolution (Xu et al. 2013; 4HUQ) from Lactobacillus brevis (strain ATCC 367 / JCM 1170)
38% identity, 98% coverage

SA2019 hypothetical protein from Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus N315
SAOUHSC_02481 cobalt transport protein, putative from Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus NCTC 8325
SAUSA300_2174 cobalt transport family protein from Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus USA300_FPR3757
43% identity, 93% coverage

SPy2193 conserved hypothetical protein from Streptococcus pyogenes M1 GAS
44% identity, 93% coverage

ECFT_STRT2 / Q5M245 Energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane protein EcfT; ECF transporter T component EcfT from Streptococcus thermophilus (strain ATCC BAA-250 / LMG 18311) (see paper)
TC 3.A.1.25.6 / Q5M245 Energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane protein EcfT, component of Riboflavin ECF transport system, EcfAA'T/RibU from Streptococcus thermophilus (strain ATCC BAA-250 / LMG 18311)
42% identity, 93% coverage

SpyM3_1844 putative ABC transporter membrane-spanning permease from Streptococcus pyogenes MGAS315
44% identity, 93% coverage

ID870_09850 energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane component T family protein from Streptococcus agalactiae CJB111
SAG2149 cobalt transport family protein from Streptococcus agalactiae 2603V/R
43% identity, 91% coverage

LBA0321 ABC transporter permease from Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM
41% identity, 98% coverage

F1613_RS11960 energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane component T family protein from Staphylococcus epidermidis
44% identity, 88% coverage

SPSF3K_00021 energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane component T family protein from Streptococcus parauberis
44% identity, 88% coverage

Q1GBI8 ABC-type vitamin B12 transporter (EC 7.6.2.8) from Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus (see paper)
LDB_RS01815 energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane component T family protein from Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus ATCC 11842 = JCM 1002
36% identity, 98% coverage

SSA_2365 Cobalt transport protein cbiQ, putative from Streptococcus sanguinis SK36
41% identity, 91% coverage

ZY05719_RS10240 energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane component T family protein from Streptococcus suis
43% identity, 96% coverage

CS401_RS07400 energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane component T family protein from Fusobacterium vincentii
36% identity, 93% coverage

ECFT_LEUMM / Q03ZL4 Energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane protein EcfT; ECF transporter T component EcfT from Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. mesenteroides (strain ATCC 8293 / DSM 20343 / BCRC 11652 / CCM 1803 / JCM 6124 / NCDO 523 / NBRC 100496 / NCIMB 8023 / NCTC 12954 / NRRL B-1118 / 37Y) (see 2 papers)
41% identity, 93% coverage

NH16_RS04620 energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane component T family protein from Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. dextranicum
42% identity, 88% coverage

SPD_2046 cobalt ABC transporter, permease protein from Streptococcus pneumoniae D39
spr2024 ABC transporter membrane-spanning permease - unknown substrate from Streptococcus pneumoniae R6
35% identity, 95% coverage

C4N14_03000 energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane component T family protein from Fusobacterium nucleatum subsp. nucleatum ATCC 23726
36% identity, 92% coverage

BL0043 possible fused ATP binding protein and permease of ABC transporter from Bifidobacterium longum NCC2705
34% identity, 29% coverage

ECFT_THEMA / Q9X2I1 Energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane protein EcfT; ECF transporter T component EcfT from Thermotoga maritima (strain ATCC 43589 / DSM 3109 / JCM 10099 / NBRC 100826 / MSB8) (see paper)
TC 3.A.1.25.5 / Q9X2I1 ABC-type transporter, integral membrane subunit, component of Biotin/Riboflavin ECF transport system, EcfAA'T/RibU/BioY (Karpowich and Wang 2013). RibU binds riboflavin with high affinity, and the protein-substrate complex is exceptionally stable in solution. The crystal structure of riboflavin-bound RibU reveals an electronegative binding pocket at the extracellular surface in which the substrate is completely buried from Thermotoga maritima (strain ATCC 43589 / MSB8 / DSM 3109 / JCM 10099)
TM1868 conserved hypothetical protein from Thermotoga maritima MSB8
35% identity, 87% coverage

Bbr_1329 energy-coupling factor transporter ATPase from Bifidobacterium breve UCC2003
35% identity, 31% coverage

Q8G838 Putative ABC transporter ATP-binding protein BL0043 from Bifidobacterium longum (strain NCC 2705)
34% identity, 30% coverage

MHO_1990 Cobalt ABC transporter permease protein from Mycoplasma hominis
30% identity, 77% coverage

DSY2722 hypothetical protein from Desulfitobacterium hafniense Y51
32% identity, 88% coverage

slr1978 unknown protein from Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803
25% identity, 89% coverage

Dshi_3687 cobalt transport protein from Dinoroseobacter shibae DFL 12
27% identity, 81% coverage

Synpcc7942_2341 cobalt transport system permease protein from Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942
26% identity, 88% coverage

O34572 Putative HMP/thiamine permease protein YkoC from Bacillus subtilis (strain 168)
26% identity, 92% coverage

alr0484 hypothetical protein from Nostoc sp. PCC 7120
22% identity, 83% coverage

CCPUN_08380 energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane component T family protein from Cardinium endosymbiont of Culicoides punctatus
24% identity, 82% coverage

MSMEG_2609 cobalt ABC transporter, permease protein CbiQ from Mycobacterium smegmatis str. MC2 155
28% identity, 82% coverage

MPN431 permease from Mycoplasma pneumoniae M129
25% identity, 47% coverage

IUJ47_RS12860 energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane component T family protein from Enterococcus faecalis
25% identity, 90% coverage

OG1RF_11693 energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane component T family protein from Enterococcus faecalis OG1RF
25% identity, 90% coverage

SACOL2707 cobalt transport family protein from Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus COL
27% identity, 87% coverage

SAR2765 ABC transporter permease protein from Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus MRSA252
26% identity, 87% coverage

SA2475 hypothetical protein from Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus N315
27% identity, 87% coverage

MG_302 metal ion ABC transporter, permease protein, putative from Mycoplasma genitalium G37
24% identity, 70% coverage

IEM_00289 energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane component T family protein from Bacillus cereus BAG6O-2
28% identity, 57% coverage

BION_RHIEC / Q2KBP6 Energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane protein BioN; ECF transporter T component BioN from Rhizobium etli (strain ATCC 51251 / DSM 11541 / JCM 21823 / NBRC 15573 / CFN 42) (see paper)
TC 3.A.1.25.1 / Q6GUB1 Permease protein BioN, component of The biotin uptake porter (binding receptor lacking) (see also the VUT or ECF family; BioY; 2.A.88.1.1) (Rodionov et al., 2006; Hebbeln et al., 2007). BioN (the EcfT component of the biotin transporter) appears to be required for intramolecular signaling and subunit assembly (Neubauer et al., 2009). The Ala-Arg-Ser and Ala-Arg-Gly signatures in BioN are coupling sites to the BioM ATPases from Rhizobium etli (see paper)
23% identity, 82% coverage

SAK_1646 nickel/cobalt uptake transporter (NiCoT) family ABC transporter, permease protein from Streptococcus agalactiae A909
30% identity, 57% coverage

YP_001103441 cobalt transport system permease protein from Saccharopolyspora erythraea NRRL 2338
26% identity, 81% coverage

cg2149 cobalt subfamily permease from Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 13032
NCgl1885 energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane component T family protein from Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 13032
25% identity, 84% coverage

B7GTQ1 Cobalt transport protein from Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis (strain ATCC 15697 / DSM 20088 / JCM 1222 / NCTC 11817 / S12)
29% identity, 70% coverage

DVU1057 component of nickel ABC transport system from Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough
24% identity, 89% coverage

lp_0148 ABC transporter, permease protein from Lactobacillus plantarum WCFS1
30% identity, 43% coverage

BIF_01879 energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane component T family protein from Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis BB-12
24% identity, 94% coverage

BA2642 cobalt transport protein from Bacillus anthracis str. Ames
26% identity, 86% coverage

TC 3.A.1.26.5 / A7NRG1 Cobalt transport protein, component of ThiW/CbiQ/CbiO homologues (ThiW: 174 aas; 5 putative TMSs) from Roseiflexus castenholzii (strain DSM 13941 / HLO8)
33% identity, 56% coverage

AB12I_ARATH / Q944H2 Protein ABCI12, chloroplastic; ABC transporter I family member 12; ABC transporter ABCI.12; AtABCI12 from Arabidopsis thaliana (Mouse-ear cress) (see paper)
AT3G21580 cobalt ion transmembrane transporter from Arabidopsis thaliana
26% identity, 36% coverage

AZC_3756 putative cobalt transport system permease protein from Azorhizobium caulinodans ORS 571
26% identity, 55% coverage

BIF_00363 ATP-binding cassette domain-containing protein from Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis BB-12
26% identity, 18% coverage

RL1003 putative transmembrane component of ABC transporter from Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. viciae 3841
23% identity, 69% coverage

MA0869 ABC transporter, permease protein from Methanosarcina acetivorans C2A
22% identity, 80% coverage

PF0067 cobalt transport ABC transporter, integral membrane component from Pyrococcus furiosus DSM 3638
33% identity, 60% coverage

MMP1483 Cobalt transport protein Q from Methanococcus maripaludis S2
27% identity, 81% coverage

BION_RHOCB / D5ARG9 Energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane protein BioN; ECF transporter T component BioN from Rhodobacter capsulatus (strain ATCC BAA-309 / NBRC 16581 / SB1003) (see paper)
TC 3.A.1.25.7 / D5ARG9 Energy-coupling factor transporter transmembrane protein BioN, component of The riboflavin uptake system, BioMNY from Rhodobacter capsulatus (strain ATCC BAA-309 / NBRC 16581 / SB1003)
25% identity, 80% coverage

cg1229 ABC-type cobalt transport system, permease component CbiQ from Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 13032
26% identity, 58% coverage

SSO1892 Conserved hypothetical protein from Sulfolobus solfataricus P2
27% identity, 32% coverage

sll0384 unknown protein from Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803
22% identity, 84% coverage

Rv2325c hypothetical protein from Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv
27% identity, 77% coverage

Amuc_1199 cobalt ABC transporter, inner membrane subunit CbiQ from Akkermansia muciniphila ATCC BAA-835
24% identity, 86% 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