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GATE 2019 BT Q.4: solution and answer

GATE 2019 · BTQ.4 · 1 mark · MCQ

Which one of the following is a database of protein sequence motifs?

  1. (A)

    PROSITE

  2. (B)

    TrEMBL

  3. (C)

    SWISSPROT

  4. (D)

    PDB

See the question in the paper
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Answer and solution

ANSWER

The correct answer is (A) PROSITE.

Official answer: ASource: Official answer key, GATE 2019 BT (IIT Madras)

  1. A protein sequence motif database stores conserved patterns/signatures (regular-expression-like patterns and profiles) associated with protein families, domains and functional sites.

  2. (A) PROSITE is exactly this: a curated database of protein domains, families and functional sites, represented as patterns and profiles derived from conserved motifs in multiple sequence alignments. Correct.

  3. (B) TrEMBL is the unreviewed, computationally annotated section of UniProt — it stores full protein sequences with automatic annotation, not a motif/pattern collection. Incorrect.

  4. (C) SWISS-PROT is the manually curated, reviewed section of UniProt — again full annotated sequences, not a motif database. Incorrect.

  5. (D) PDB (Protein Data Bank) stores experimentally determined 3D structures of proteins and nucleic acids, not sequence motifs. Incorrect.

  6. Hence the correct answer is PROSITE.

KEY IDEA

PROSITE is a curated database of protein domains, families and functional sites, represented as sequence patterns (regular-expression-like signatures) and profiles derived from conserved motifs — as opposed to UniProt/TrEMBL/Swiss-Prot (full sequence records) or PDB (3D structures).

WATCH OUT FOR

Confusing any UniProt-family database (TrEMBL, SWISS-PROT) with a motif database just because they are also "protein sequence" resources — they store full annotated sequences, not curated pattern/profile signatures of motifs.

From the GATE 2019 BT paper. Every question of this paper · Download the full paper · All 11 Bioinformatics questions, with notes

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