Database Commons
Database Commons

a catalog of worldwide biological databases

Database Profile

dbCAN-PUL

General information

URL: http://bcb.unl.edu/dbCAN_PUL/
Full name: CAZyme-containing Gene Cluster Database
Description: dbCAN-PUL is a data repository of prokaryotic CAZyme-containing gene clusters that have been experimentally validated to act on a carbohydrate substrate (also known as polysaccharide utilization loci or PULs). In contrast to similar resources such as PULDB, this repository serves as a database containing the most experimentally verified PULs with a confirmed carbohydrate substrate, as well as range from different phyla and comprised of different metabolism systems (as opposed to only the Bacteroidetes and the Starch utilization system (Sus) gene homologs).
Year founded: 2021
Last update:
Version:
Accessibility:
Accessible
Country/Region: United States

Contact information

University/Institution: University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Address: Lincoln, NE 68588, USA
City: Lincoln
Province/State: Nebraska
Country/Region: United States
Contact name (PI/Team): Yanbin Yin
Contact email (PI/Helpdesk): yyin@unl.edu

Publications

32941621
dbCAN-PUL: a database of experimentally characterized CAZyme gene clusters and their substrates. [PMID: 32941621]
Ausland C, Zheng J, Yi H, Yang B, Li T, Feng X, Zheng B, Yin Y.

PULs (polysaccharide utilization loci) are discrete gene clusters of CAZymes (Carbohydrate Active EnZymes) and other genes that work together to digest and utilize carbohydrate substrates. While PULs have been extensively characterized in Bacteroidetes, there exist PULs from other bacterial phyla, as well as archaea and metagenomes, that remain to be catalogued in a database for efficient retrieval. We have developed an online database dbCAN-PUL (http://bcb.unl.edu/dbCAN_PUL/) to display experimentally verified CAZyme-containing PULs from literature with pertinent metadata, sequences, and annotation. Compared to other online CAZyme and PUL resources, dbCAN-PUL has the following new features: (i) Batch download of PUL data by target substrate, species/genome, genus, or experimental characterization method; (ii) Annotation for each PUL that displays associated metadata such as substrate(s), experimental characterization method(s) and protein sequence information, (iii) Links to external annotation pages for CAZymes (CAZy), transporters (UniProt) and other genes, (iv) Display of homologous gene clusters in GenBank sequences via integrated MultiGeneBlast tool and (v) An integrated BLASTX service available for users to query their sequences against PUL proteins in dbCAN-PUL. With these features, dbCAN-PUL will be an important repository for CAZyme and PUL research, complementing our other web servers and databases (dbCAN2, dbCAN-seq).

Nucleic Acids Res. 2021:49(D1) | 74 Citations (from Europe PMC, 2025-12-13)

Ranking

All databases:
899/6895 (86.976%)
Raw bio-data:
63/582 (89.347%)
Gene genome and annotation:
305/2021 (84.958%)
Phylogeny and homology:
44/302 (85.762%)
Modification:
52/337 (84.866%)
Structure:
112/967 (88.521%)
Literature:
87/577 (85.095%)
Metadata:
85/719 (88.317%)
899
Total Rank
66
Citations
16.5
z-index

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Record metadata

Created on: 2020-11-06
Curated by:
Lin Liu [2022-08-21]
Lin Liu [2021-03-23]
Ming Chen [2020-11-24]
Ming Chen [2020-11-06]