TransportDB: A relational database of cellular membrane transport systems

Abstract

TransportDB (http://www.membranetransport.org) is a relational database designed for describing the predicted cellular membrane transport proteins in organisms whose complete genome sequences are available. For each organism, the complete set of membrane transport systems was identified and classified into different types and families according to putative membrane topology, protein family, bioenergetics and substrate specificities. Web pages were created to provide user-friendly interfaces to easily access, query and download the data. Additional features, such as a BLAST search tool against known transporter protein sequences, comparison of transport systems from different organisms and phylogenetic trees of individual transporter families are also provided. TransportDB will be regularly updated with data obtained from newly sequenced genomes.