October 1, 2010 (Vol. 30, No. 17)

URL:
http://aramemnon.botanik.uni-koeln.de

Rating:
Strong Points: Simple, clean site design, provides links to the individual prediction tools
Weak Points: Nothing major

Summary:

Here is an all-natural, pesticide-free website for all of you plant researchers out there. Aramemnon is a virtual Garden of Eden when it comes to membrane proteins in plants, containing all of the putative membrane proteins for Arabidopsis thaliana, Oryza sativa, Vitis vinifera, and Zea mays. (Or, for the rest of us, thale cress, rice, grape, and maize, respectively.) An additional 300 other seed plants also make cameos in the database, with a combined 4,000 putative membrane proteins. The database, which is a product of the Botanical Institute at the University of Cologne, uses upwards of 20 separate prediction methods to generate the predicted alpha helices and beta barrels of the transmembrane proteins. Fortunately for the user, the end result of these varied calculations and consensus predictions is a very simple output. The website is uncluttered, the introduction to and description of the site are sufficient, and the database is a very useful resource for any researcher interested in this class of proteins.

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