ESTHER database: update on the alpha/beta hydrolase fold superfamily of proteins

The database ESTHER (ESTerase and alpha/beta Hydrolase Enzymes and Relatives, http://bioweb.supagro.inra.fr/esther), now cross-referenced in UniProt (http://www.uniprot.org), is growing ata fast pace: today it contains ca. 48.000 Gene-proteins grouped in 182 families [1,2,3]. As many as 1650 crystal structures covering 429 distinct members of the superfamily are available in the RCSB PDB; for more than 109 families at least one structure is known. For the human genome, 120 genes that encode proteins belonging to 53families are referenced in the database. For only 36 of these proteins, a structure is available. For 25 of these genes, mutations have been associated with a disease. The database also includes 856 natural orartificial substitutions reported in 93 cholinesterases, carboxylesterases or non-catalytic cholinesterase-like proteins. These substitutions are spread along 235 positions of the 575 amino-acid sequence of Torpedo acetylcholinesterase, used as a reference. 203 distinct substitutions in acetylcholinesterase or carboxylesterasefound in insecticide-resistant populations of 29 arthropod species are listed [4]. 618 inhibitors, 275 substrates, and 44 reactivators are included and indexed by InChL, PubChem, Canonical Smiles. An interface “LiKid” is being built for analysis and interpretation of enzyme kinetic data.