SPAC: identification of polypeptides using their amino-acid composition

We describe here new software able to retrieve from protein or nucleic acid databases, the sequence corresponding to a protein or peptide whose only a mino acid composition and molecular weight are known. This algorithm is par ticularly devoted to the retrieval of partial sequences, a task that other available software performs poorly. Its accuracy for the attribution of a p rotein fragment to a sequence could represent an easy and economical first tool upstream the use of more sophisticated and expensive methods in proteo mic research. SPAC (Sequence Protein Alignment with Composition) is a share ware available software on web site http://www.univ-tln.fr/ similar to gril las/SPAC/. This web site also presents help and a detailed description of t he algorithm and interface. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reser ved.