Comprehensive library of small proteins of different microbial species

Small proteins with fewer than 50
residues have largely been neglected in the field of proteomics, where the
focus has been on larger proteins with multiple domains. Such a situation is
understandable given that proteins with more domains could potentially perform
more tasks or are endowed with larger number of sensory functions. In addition,
larger proteins migrate slower in gel electrophoresis and liquid
chromatography, and are thus easier to detect. This work sought to provide
fundamental information about the ensemble of small proteins in different
microbial species that have been concatenated into a single database of small
proteins. Original data came from UniProt, which were parsed by an in-house
MATLAB proteome analysis software to yield protein name, amino acid sequence,
number of residues, molecular weight, and nucleotide sequence. Overall, the
database of small proteins of different microbial species that spans different
domains and across 72 species should find use in a variety of workflows seeking
to gain a more holistic understanding of these small proteins.