SUBIM: a program for analysing the Kabat database and determining the variability subgroup of a new immunoglobulin sequence

Although various programs are available to extract all the information included in protein sequence databases, none is dedicated to immunoglobulins. For this purpose, we designed a program, SUBIM, which is adapted to the Kabat database specialized in immunoglobulin sequences. Besides all the possibilities of any database searching program, SUBIM analyses new sequences of variable regions and determines the variability subgroup they belong to. It also numbers the new sequence according to the system established by Kabat and co-workers for an easier comparison with the other immunoglobulins, thus realizing an automatic alignment with other members of a given type of immunoglobulin chain. This program is largely machine independent and requires very little memory, and should help biochemists concerned with new immunoglobulin sequences.