BACTIBASE second release: A database and tool platform for bacteriocin characterization

Background. BACTIBASE is an integrated open-access database designed for the characterization of bacterial antimicrobial peptides, commonly known as bacteriocins. Description. For its second release, BACTIBASE has been expanded and equipped with additional functions aimed at both casual and power users. The number of entries has been increased by 44% and includes data collected from published literature as well as high-throughput datasets. The database provides a manually curated annotation of bacteriocin sequences. Improvements brought to BACTIBASE include incorporation of various tools for bacteriocin analysis, such as homology search, multiple sequence alignments, Hidden Markov Models, molecular modelling and retrieval through our taxonomy Browser. Conclusion. The provided features should make BACTIBASE a useful tool in food preservation or food safety applications and could have implications for the development of new drugs for medical use. BACTIBASE is available at http://bactibase.pfba-lab-tun. org. © 2010 Hammami et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.