MITOP, the mitochondrial proteome database: 2000 update

MITOP (http://www.mips.biochem.mpg.de/proj/medgen/mitop/) is a comprehensiv e database for genetic and functional information on both nuclear- and mito chondrial-encoded proteins and their genes. The five species files-Saccharo myces cerevisiae, Mus musdulus, Caenorhabditis elegans, Neurospora crassa a nd Homo sapiens-include annotated data derived from a variety of online res ources and the literature. A wide spectrum of search facilities is given in the overlapping sections 'Gene catalogues', 'Protein catalogues', 'Homolog ies', 'Pathways and metabolism' and 'Human disease catalogue' including ext ensive references and hyperlinks to other:databases. Central features are t he results of various homology searches, which should facilitate the invest igations into interspecies relationships, Precomputed PASTA searches using all the MITOP yeast protein entries and a list of the best human EST hits w ith graphical cluster alignments related to the yeast reference sequence ar e presented. The orthologue tables with:cross-listings to all the protein e ntries for each species in MITOP have been expanded by adding the genomes o f Rickettsia prowazeckii and Escherichia coli, To find new mitochondrial pr oteins the complete yeast genome has been analyzed using the MITOPROT progr am which identifies mitochondrial targeting sequences. The 'Human disease c atalogue' contains tables with a total of 110 human diseases related to mit ochondrial protein abnormalities,, sorted by clinical criteria and age of o nset, MITOP should contribute to the systematic genetic characterization of the mitochondrial proteome in relation to human disease.