In MiCroKiTS 4.0 database, we tried to make it more powerful and convenient to be used. The MiCroKiTS 4.0 provide the search option and advanced options.

1. Search. You can input one or multiple keywords (separated by space character) to search the MiCroKiTS database. The search fields including UniProt Accession, Species, Protein Name, Gene Name, and Function.

EXAMPLE: Please click on the "Example" button to search "CENPE" in Gene Name field. By clicking on the "Submit" button, the related microkits proteins will be shown.

(2) Browse. You can browse the MiCroKiTS 4.0 database by species and/or sub-cellular regions.

(1) Browse by single localization Click one type of super-complex to browse the database.

(2) Browse by multiple localizations With the default setting, you can directly click on the "Submit" button to browse proteins localized at both centrosome and midbody among 144 species.

(3) Browse by species You can directly click on the species to browse proteins localized at different localizations for the organism.

3. Advanced Options. Three advanced options are provided, including advanced search, batch search, BLAST search.

(1) Advanced search allows you to input up to two terms to find the information more specifically. The querying fields can be empty if less terms are needed. The three terms could be connected by the following operators:

exclude: If selected, the term following this operator must be not contained in the specified field(s)
and: the term following this operator has to be included in the specified field(s)
or: either the preceding or the following term to this operator should occur in the specified field(s)

EXAMPLE: You can click on the "Example" button to load an instance, which could search kinetochore protein aurora in Homo sapiens. The human Aurora kinases will be shown by clicking on the "Submit" button.

(2) Batch search could be used to find a number of proteins such as a protein list. You can input keyword list, for example, a list of UniProt IDs to search the database. The list should be inputed as one keyword one line.

EXAMPLE: You can click on the "Example" button to load three Aurora kinases UniProt accessions including O14965, Q96GD4 and Q9UQB9. By clicking on the "Submit" button, you can find Aurora kinase A, B and C.

(3) BLAST search could be used to find the specific protein and/or related homologues by sequence alignment. This search-option will help you to find the querying protein accurately and fast. Only one protein sequence in FASTA format is allowed per time. The E-value threshold could be user-defined. The default parameters of E-value is 0.01.

EXAMPLE: You can click on the "Example" button to load the protein sequence of Schizosaccharomyces pombe Aurora-related kinase 1. By clicking on the "Submit" button, you can find the related homologues.