Expert curation in UniProtKB: A case study on dealing with conflicting and erroneous data

Abstract

UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot provides expert curation with information extracted from literature and curator-evaluated computational analysis. As knowledgebases continue to play an increasingly important role in scientific research, a number of studies have evaluated their accuracy and revealed various errors. While some are curation errors, others are the result of incorrect information published in the scientific literature. By taking the example of sirtuin-5, a complex annotation case, we will describe the curation procedure of UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot and detail how we report conflicting information in the database. We will demonstrate the importance of collaboration between resources to ensure curation consistency and the value of contributions from the user community in helping maintain error-free resources.