Tox-Prot The UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot Toxin Annotation Program

The Tox-Prot program aims to systematically annotate all proteins which act as toxins and are produced by venomous and poisonous animals. Venomous animals such as snakes, scorpions, spiders, jellyfish, insects, cone snails, sea anemones, lizards, some fish, and platypus are equipped with a specialized organ to inject venom in their prey. In contrast, poisonous animals such as some fish or worms, lack such organs.

Each toxin is annotated according to the quality standards of UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot. This means providing a wealth of information that includes the description of the function, domain structure, subcellular location, tissue specificity, variants, similarities to other proteins, keywords, etc.

In the framework of this program, particular care has been made to capture what is known on the function and mode of action, post- translational modifications and 3D structural data which are all relatively abundant in the field of protein toxins.

UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot welcomes any relevant feedback from researchers, which can be done by using the Contact Us button on the right-hand menu.