biology

International Protein Index

International Protein Index is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand International Protein Index rather than just read about it. In short: The International Protein Index (IPI) is a defunct protein database launched in 2001 by the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), and closed in 2011. Its purpose was to provide the proteomics community with a resource that enables accession numbers from a variety of bioinformatics databases to be mapped a complete set of proteins for a species i.e. a reference set In its last version, the IPI contained the comple…

Key takeaways

International Protein Index belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect International Protein Index to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of International Protein Index from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The International Protein Index (IPI) is a defunct protein database launched in 2001 by the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), and closed in 2011. Its purpose was to provide the proteomics community with a resource that enables

accession numbers from a variety of bioinformatics databases to be mapped a complete set of proteins for a species i.e. a reference set In its last version, the IPI contained the complete reference sets for six animal species: Homo sapiens (human), Mus musculus (mouse), Rattus norvegicus (rat), Bos taurus (cattle), Gallus gallus (chicken) and Danio rerio (zebrafish); and one plant species: Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress). The human, mouse and rat datasets were the first to be developed, combining information taken from the Swiss-Prot, TrEMBL, Ensembl and RefSeq databases.

History In 2001, when the IPI was launched, databases cataloguing human genes varied greatly and had few links between them. Since then, much more data has been produced giving a more complete picture and databases have collaborated to synchronize data. Currently many model organisms have a reference set of genes/proteins which are catalogued in Ensembl/UniProt respectively, as well as other species specific databases. Because of this redundancy, the IPI was retired in 2011. EBI advised users of its services to employ UniProtKB accession numbers as their protein identifiers.

References

External links Archive of IPI releases @ EBI

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with International Protein Index

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what International Protein Index claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to International Protein Index before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about International Protein Index ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of International Protein Index

In research: International Protein Index appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses International Protein Index in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: International Protein Index is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Data synchronization, Databases in the United Kingdom, Index numbers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for International Protein Index outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study International Protein Index in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what International Protein Index means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain International Protein Index out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is International Protein Index in simple terms?

Why does International Protein Index matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study International Protein Index?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on International Protein Index.