PANTHER in 2013: modeling the evolution of gene function, and other gene attributes, in the context of phylogenetic trees

The data and tools in PANTHER-a comprehensive, curated database of protein families, trees, subfamilies and functions available at http://pantherdb.org-have undergone continual, extensive improvement for over a decade. Here, we describe the current PANTHER process as a whole, as well as the website tools for analysis of user-uploaded data. The main goals of PANTHER remain essentially unchanged: the accurate inference (and practical application) of gene and protein function over large sequence databases, using phylogenetic trees to extrapolate from the relatively sparse experimental information from a few model organisms. Yet the focus of PANTHER has continually shifted toward more accurate and detailed…