Analysis and organization of protein sequence data: a retrospective spanning four decades.

Protein sequence data are as useful and valuable today as was envisioned by pioneering sequencers and by the organizers of the first sequence database. Sequence analysis was first the province of specialists who developed search, comparison, and tree-building methods. Microcomputers, communication satellites, and the Internet have made these methods accessible to any scientist. The rapid increase in the data has driven a succession of changes in how databases are compiled, distributed, and accessed. Large public databases have become international collaborations. Although they need to develop still more efficient ways to accumulate, organize, annotate, and standardize huge amounts of data, inadequate support is available for such efforts. Thus there will be greater reliance on direct input from the scientific community. The World Wide Web is essential but not sufficient for integrated access to related databases.