The HEATSTER platform aims to offer different webtools and datasets for the identification, description, and characterization of heat stress transcription factors (HSFs).
Therefore, different tools for classification and visualization are offered:

• Annotation tool
  • Identification of HSFs
  • Usage of domain and motif features
  • Identification based on HMMER & MAST
  • Classification basing on apperance of domain cahrecteristic motifs
• Visualization tool
  • Visual representation of known HSFs among plants
  • Mapping of existing motif sets onto protein sequence
  • Comparison of known HSFs and user provided sequences
  • Comparison of HSFs domain specific motifs

Further, the platform's database provides a manually curated dataset that includes 848 plant HSF sequences from 33 plant species (database version 1.0) and an extended dataset of 65 species (database version 2.0).
Beside the HSFs derived of different species, class specific motif set are provided.

In plants, HSFs have evolved in a complex manner (Nover et al. , 1996, 2001; Figure 3). The three different HSF classes HsfA, HsfB and HsfC are characterized by specific sequences and composition of their functional domains involved in:

• DNA binding (DBD, yellow)
• Oligomerization (HR-A/B region, green)
• Nuclear localization and export (NLS and NES, orange)
• Transcriptional activation and repression (AHA and RD, blue)

Critical comments and suggestions for further improvement are highly appreciated. Refer to Stefan Simm or to Ingo Ebersberger for HSF-related queries and bioinformatics aspects.