Background: Knowledge of subcellular localization of proteins is crucial to proteomics, drug target discovery and systems biology since localization and biological function are highly correlated. In recent years, numerous computational prediction methods have been developed. Nevertheless, there is still a need for prediction methods that show more robustness and higher accuracy.

Predicting subcellular localization has become a valuable alternative to time-consuming experimental methods. Major drawbacks of many of these predictors is their lack of interpretability and the fact that they do not provide an estimate of the confidence of an individual prediction. We present YLoc, an interpretable web server for predicting subcellular localization. YLoc uses natural language to explain why a prediction was made and which biological property of the protein was mainly responsible for it. In addition, YLoc estimates the reliability of its own predictions. YLoc can, thus, assist in understanding protein localization and in location engineering of proteins. The YLoc web server is available online at www.multiloc.org/YLoc.

Motivation: Protein subcellular localization is pivotal in understanding a protein's function. Computational prediction of subcellular localization has become a viable alternative to experimental approaches. While current machine learning-based methods yield good prediction accuracy, most of them suffer from two key problems: lack of interpretability and dealing with multiple locations.Results: We present YLoc, a novel method for predicting protein subcellular localization that addresses these issues. Due to its simple architecture, YLoc can identify the relevant features of a protein sequence contributing to its subcellular localization, e.g. localization signals or motifs relevant to protein sorting. We present several example applications where YLoc identifies the sequence features responsible for protein localization, and thus reveals not only to which location a protein is transported to, but also why it is transported there. YLoc also provides a confidence estimate for the prediction. Thus, the user can decide what level of error is acceptable for a prediction. Due to a probabilistic approach and the use of several thousands of dual-targeted proteins, YLoc is able to predict multiple locations per protein. YLoc was benchmarked using several independent datasets for protein subcellular localization and performs on par with other state-of-the-art predictors. Disregarding low-confidence predictions, YLoc can achieve prediction accuracies of over 90%. Moreover, we show that YLoc is able to reliably predict multiple locations and outperforms the best predictors in this area.Availability: www.multiloc.org/YLocContact: briese@informatik.uni-tuebingen.deSupplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

SherLoc2 is a comprehensive high-accuracy subcellular localization prediction system. It is applicable to animal, fungal, and plant proteins and covers all main eukaryotic subcellular locations. SherLoc2 integrates several sequence-based features as well as text-based features. In addition, we incorporate phylogenetic profiles and Gene Ontology (GO) terms derived from the protein sequence to considerably improve the prediction performance. SherLoc2 achieves an overall classification accuracy of up to 93% in 5-fold cross-validation. A novel feature, DiaLoc, allows users to manually provide their current background knowledge by describing a protein in a short abstract which is then used to improve the prediction. SherLoc2 is available both as a free Web service and as a stand-alone version at http://www-bs.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de/Services/SherLoc2.