Good publication practice as a prerequisite for comparable enzyme data?

Systems level investigation of genomic and proteomic scale information requires incomparably higher demands for data quality than in previous decades. Truly integrated databases that deal with heterogeneous data need to be developed to be able to retrieve properties of genes, for kinetics of enzymes, for behaviour of complex networks and for the analysis and modelling of complex biological processes. Despite the fast paced global efforts in biological systems research, the current analyses are limited by the lack of available systematic collections of comparable functional enzyme data. Besides its reliability, these data have to provide defined minimum experimental information, they must be available from the literature along with their accepted enzyme names, and must be as comprehensive as possible. However, the reality reveals a different picture: the quality of experimental data of enzymes is insufficient for the needs of systems level investigations. A 2003 founded working group, called STRENDA, recently published suggestions which intend both to improve the quality of reporting functional enzyme data and to support the comparability of inter alia enzyme kinetics for their application in the in silico investigation of biological systems.