COGcollator: A web server for analysis of distant relationships between homologous protein families

Abstract

Background: The Clusters of Orthologous Groups (COGs) of proteins systematize evolutionary related proteins into specific groups with similar functions. However, the available databases do not provide means to assess the extent of similarity between the COGs. Aim: We intended to provide a method for identification and visualization of evolutionary relationships between the COGs, as well as a respective web server. Results: Here we introduce the COGcollator, a web tool for identification of evolutionarily related COGs and their further analysis. We demonstrate the utility of this tool by identifying the COGs that contain distant homologs of (i) the catalytic subunit of bacterial rotary membrane ATP synthases and (ii) the DNA/RNA helicases of the superfamily 1. Reviewers: This article was reviewed by Drs. Igor N. Berezovsky, Igor Zhulin and Yuri Wolf.