EC-BLAST: a tool to automatically search and compare enzyme reactions

EC-BLAST is a Web-based tool allowing quantitative similarity searches between enzymes at the levels of bond-change, reaction-center or reaction-structure similarity. The tool may help improve the annotation of enzyme function. We present EC-BLAST ( http://www.ebi.ac.uk/thornton-srv/software/rbl/ ), an algorithm and Web tool for quantitative similarity searches between enzyme reactions at three levels: bond change, reaction center and reaction structure similarity. It uses bond changes and reaction patterns for all known biochemical reactions derived from atom-atom mapping across each reaction. EC-BLAST has the potential to improve enzyme classification, identify previously uncharacterized or new biochemical transformations, improve the assignment of enzyme function to sequences, and assist in enzyme engineering.