advertisement: compare things at compare-stuff.com!

SCOP

As a result, one of the most accurate classifications of protein structures, the SCOP database[Murzin et al., 1995], is largely constructed by hand. Expert knowledge of protein structure and biochemistry is translated into an internet resourcewhich provides information about folds and their probable evolutionary relationships. It is also kept remarkably up to date, usually being no more than a few months behind the PDB. Since information is sourced from the literature, the database may even describe folds whose coordinates are not yet released to the public.

Automated classifications offer much faster production times and more efficient use of resources (computer time is cheap). They fail however where manual methods succeed, in the classification of proteins with similar folds, but different functions. Numerical cutoffs and alignment parameters are no match for expert knowledge and the human brain. Nonetheless, two very useful structure databases exist which are best described as `semi-automated'.