convert protein accession number to description

Question

[Learner]

I am wondering if anyone knows how to convert protein accession number to protein description of UniProt ?

let say I have the top 10 of this list

https://www.uniprot.org/uniprot/?query=human&sort=score

Q9H9K5
Q53XC5
P31689
P08246
P10144
P63244
P25685
Q6P2E9
O60271
Q9UBS4

[me]

Could you describe what exactly you mean by "description"

Answer 1

[GenoMax]

With EntrezDirect:

$ esearch -db protein -query "Q9H9K5" | esummary | xtract -pattern DocumentSummary -element Title
RecName: Full=Endogenous retroviral envelope protein HEMO; AltName: Full=Endogenous retrovirus group MER34 member 1 Env polyprotein; AltName: Full=HERV-MER_4q12 provirus ancestral Env polyprotein; AltName: Full=Human endogenous MER34 (medium-reiteration-frequency-family-34) open reading frame; AltName: Full=Human endogenous MER34 ORF; Short=HEMO; Contains: RecName: Full=Endogenous retroviral envelope protein HEMO, secreted form; AltName: Full=Endogenous retroviral envelope protein HEMO, 48 kDa form; Flags: Precursor

For a file containing accession numbers (one per line):

$ epost -db protein -input acc | esummary -db protein | xtract -pattern DocumentSummary -element Caption,Title

[me]

This will fail in a large number of cases as the NCBI does not have all UniProt accessions.

[GenoMax]

I think OP is only looking at human genes so I assume they should all be present.

OP could always use the UniProt ID mapping service and download any column they want from the results table.