THE PIR-INTERNATIONAL DATABASES

PIR-International is an association of macromolecular sequence data co llection centers dedicated to fostering international cooperation as a n essential element in the development of scientific databases. PIR-In ternational is most noted for the Protein Sequence Database. This data base originated in the early 1960's with the pioneering work of the la te Margaret Dayhoff as a research tool for the study of protein evolut ion and intersequence relationships; it is maintained as a scientific resource, organized by biological concepts, using sequence homology as a guiding principle. PIR-International also maintains a number of oth er genomic, protein sequence, and sequence-related databases. The data bases of PIR-International are made widely available. This paper brief ly describes the architecture of the Protein Sequence Database, a numb er of other PIR-International databases, and mechanisms for providing access to and for distribution of these databases.