A cholinesterase genes server (ESTHER): a database of cholinesterase- related sequences for multiple alignments, phylogenetic relationships, mutations and structural data retrieval

Abstract
We have built a database of sequences phylogeneti-cally related to cholinesterases ( EST HER for esterases, α/β h ydrolase e nzymes and r elatives). These sequences define a homogeneous group of enzymes (carboxylesterases, lipases and hormone-sensitive lipases) with some related proteins devoid of enzymatic activity. The purpose of ESTHER is to help comparison and alignment of any new sequence appearing in the field, to favour mutation analysis of structure-function relationships and to allow structural data recovery. ESTHER is a World Wide Web server with the URL http://www.montpellier.inra.fr:70/cholinesterase .