STRENDA Mission

Large amounts of published data are available on the behaviour of individual enzymes, but even a cursory examination of the literature will reveal that these were often collected under quite disparate conditions, of pH, temperature, ionic strength etc. Furthermore, full details of the assay conditions that were used are often lacking.

There was a young lady called BRENDA^*,
and I tried to find data to send her,
but she said "It's no good,
and I think that you should
send me stuff that's consistent with STRENDA
(Athel Cornish-Bowden, Feb. 2004)

These problems often make it difficult for researchers to compare the behaviour of a single enzyme in different species or tissues by collating different publications. The difficulties are often further compounded by the lack of any statistical data on the parameters reported. When the values differ by orders of magnitude, as they do for example in comparisons between the hexokinase isoenzymes found in different tissues, lack of knowledge about the precision of the reported values may not matter very much; but in comparing enzymes between species the values may only differ by a few percent, and in such cases an unknown degree of imprecision may completely hide whatever effect one is trying to see.

The difficulties become even more acute for those wishing to use published data to model the behaviour of metabolic systems, cellular behaviour and the interaction of cells within tissues and organs.

We have recently described these difficulties more fully (Trends Biochem. Sci., 2005: 30:11-12; PMID: 15653320), and the STRENDA Commission, in consultation with the wider scientific community, plans to address them, in the hope that future publications will more readily yield the sort of information that researchers hope to find.

Whilst checking the database BRENDA
for the results that I wanted to send ya’
the file was quite bare
no details were there
and that’s the reason for STRENDA
(Allan Dunn, Apr. 2006)

The aims of the STRENDA Commission are as follows:

To establish standards of reporting enzyme data, to allow a full understanding of the conditions under which they were obtained. It is hoped that such standards will become required by the major scientific journals and that they will be fully documented in those databases, such as

and other electronic repositories related to organisms and enzyme groups that compile enzyme activity and kinetic data.

A final document that provides a check-list of information that should be included when enzyme kinetic data are reported is

for further discussion and comment. Please send you suggestions to the STRENDA co-ordination whose address is given here.

To propose uniform assay standards for the standardization of data for single enzymes and groups of enzymes. Clearly the conditions under which an enzyme operates will depend on the organism and organelle in which it occurs. To take an extreme example, the physiological temperature at which an enzyme operates in a mammal may have little relevance to the behaviour of the corresponding enzyme in a hyperthermophile. On the other hand, using very different assay conditions for assaying the forward and reverse reactions catalysed by the same enzyme may mean that valuable thermodynamic data are lost.

The STRENDA Commission recognizes that any recommendations on the standardization of experimental conditions will require broad discussions within the scientific community. These must eventually lead to the formulation of commonly acceptable codes of “good laboratory practice” in terms of comparability of the results of functional enzyme characterization. Nearly ten years ago, a similar world-wide movement among electrophysiologists led to publication of an agreement on definite representation of transmembrane currents (Science, 1992, 258:873-874; PMID: 1439795). We believe that further delay addressing these issues would be a disservice to the community.

STRENDA is very interested in cooperating with other standardization initiatives in pertinent subjects. Timely cooperation between the various initiatives is desirable to avoid duplication of effort and diversity of recommendations made by different groups.

top

The Role of the Beilstein-Institut

This work will necessitate broad discussions, involving different disciplines. Such activities are best carried out under the auspices of an independent scientific institution, such as the Beilstein-Institut. The Institut has numerous international contacts that extend beyond classical organic chemistry, and it has acted as a catalyst in the formation of the STRENDA Commission; it has indicated a willingness to foster its activities as long as the process of discussion and agreement moves in a positive direction. Subsequently the Institute expects to modify its role in this forum and considers supporting the resulting follow-up research projects.

top

The following scientists have agreed to devote time to working in the STRENDA Commission:

Richard Armstrong, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

Amos Bairoch, Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Geneva, Switzerland

Athel Cornish-Bowden, CNRS-BIP, Marseille, France

Peter Halling, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, UK

Thomas Leyh, The Albert-Einstein-College, Bronx, New York, USA

Johann Rohwer, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South Africa

Dietmar Schomburg, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, Technical University Braunschweig, Germany

Christoph Steinbeck, EMBL Outstation, European Bioinformatics Institute, Hinxton, UK

Keith Tipton, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

Carsten Kettner (co-ordinator), Beilstein-Institut, Frankfurt/Main, Germany