UniProtKB vs ExoCarta: which DB is better to work with?

Question

[barlobatobq]

Hi everyone!

I need to download a dataset of proteins secreted in exosomes, the bigger the better. My first idea was to download data from UniProtKB but then I discovered ExoCarta (http://www.exocarta.org/), a DB focused on molecules secreted in exosomes. Both UniProtKB and ExoCarta are curated, being ExoCarta manually curated. ExoCarta provides me with 9,000 proteins, whilst UniProtKB has 7,500 approximately.

Then, the question is: which DB is better to work with? Which source is more reliable? I would very much appreciate if someone with experience in the field answered me.

[Jean-Karim Heriche]

I don't think this is a question that can easily be answered. As you point out, both resources are curated so this would boil down to which curation process you trust most, based, for example, on what kind of evidence they use. Specialised resources tend to rely on domain-specific knowledge whereas general resources like UniProt rely more on publications. Your choice could also depend on other factors. For example, UniProt may cover more species than ExoCarta or ExoCarta may have more relevant details.