UniProtKBTrEMBL

UniProtKB/TrEMBL is a major component of the UniProt Knowledgebase. It contains protein sequences translated from coding sequences in the EMBL/GenBank nucleotide databases that have not yet undergone manual review by curators. TrEMBL entries are automatically annotated using computational pipelines that assign protein names, organism provenance, gene names, functional descriptions, cross-references to other databases, and, when applicable, predicted Enzyme Commission (EC) numbers and subcellular locations.

Annotations in TrEMBL are produced from sequence similarity, motif and domain predictions, and other high-throughput analyses. Because these annotations are automated, they may be less precise than those in the curated UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot portion, and they are typically accompanied by computational evidence. The collection thus provides broad coverage of newly sequenced proteins and serves as a provisional repository while manual curation proceeds.

Relationship to Swiss-Prot: UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot contains manually reviewed entries with higher confidence in function, localization, and other annotations. TrEMBL complements Swiss-Prot by offering comprehensive coverage of new sequences; entries can be curated and migrated to Swiss-Prot with a reviewed status. Conversely, Swiss-Prot entries may be updated or retained as reviewed records.

Maintenance and access: TrEMBL is maintained by the UniProt Consortium and updated on a daily basis. It is accessible via the UniProt website and cross-referenced with EMBL-EBI, GenBank/ENA, and other resources, enabling integration with genome and proteome data for researchers conducting large-scale analyses or initial annotations.