‘Democratized’ genomic enzymology web tools for functional assignment

The protein databases contain an exponentially growing number of sequences as a result of the recent increase in ease and decrease in cost of genome sequencing. The rate of data accumulation far exceeds the rate of functional studies, producing an increase in genomic ‘dark matter’, sequences for which no precise and validated function is defined. Publicly accessible, that is ‘democratized,’ genomic enzymology web tools are essential to leverage the protein and genome databases for discovery of the in vitro activities and in vivo functions of novel enzymes and proteins belonging to the dark matter. In this review, we discuss the use of web tools that have proven successful for functional assignment. We also describe a mechanism for ensuring the capture of published functional data so that the quality of both curated and automated annotations transfer can be improved.