Uniprot Database

What it does

This skill provides direct access to UniProt, a comprehensive resource for sequence and functional information about proteins. It enables AI agents to retrieve protein sequences, analyze gene products, and explore detailed annotations including function and structure data.

When to use it

• You need to verify the amino acid sequence of a specific protein identified in genomic data.
• You are researching the biological function or cellular location of a gene product across different species.
• You require cross-references between UniProt entries and other major databases like PDB or GenBank.
• You need to extract structured metadata about protein variants, domains, or post-translational modifications.

Key capabilities

• Search for proteins using keywords, accession numbers, or organism names.
• Retrieve full sequence data and associated functional annotations.
• Access cross-references linking to external databases for deeper analysis.
• Query specific entry types such as reviewed (Swiss-Prot) or unreviewed entries.

Example prompts

• "Find the UniProt entry for human hemoglobin and summarize its primary function."
• "Retrieve the amino acid sequence for E. coli beta-lactamase and list its known domains."
• "Search for all proteins in Saccharomyces cerevisiae associated with DNA repair and provide their accession numbers."

Tips & gotchas

Ensure you specify the organism or use precise identifiers to avoid retrieving irrelevant entries from other species. UniProt data is curated, but unreviewed entries may lack detailed functional annotations compared to Swiss-Prot records.