Patterns and clusters within the PSM column in TiBS, 1992-2004.

Sequence similarities among proteins can infer biological function and evolutionary relationships--a powerful approach for investigating new proteins and suggesting future experiments. The availability of public sequence databases and freely distributed tools for sequence analysis has meant that researchers from all over the world can use this approach. For the past 12 years, the Protein Sequence Motif column in TiBS has provided a platform for documenting interesting discoveries from sequence analyses. As the column comes to an end, we look at the published contributions over the years and reflect on sequence analysis through the beginning of the genomic era.