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. 2009 May 8;10:136. doi: 10.1186/1471-2105-10-136

Table 3.

Query syntax overview

Query Returns
human antigen All entries containing both terms
human AND antigen

"human antigen" All entries containing both terms in the same order

anti* All entries containing terms starting with anti. To search for a term that contains an actual asterisk, escape the asterisk with a backslash (anti\*). Asterisks can be used within and at the end of terms.

human-antigen All entries containing the term human but not antigen
human NOT antigen

human OR antigen All entries containing either term

antigen (human OR pig) Using brackets to override Boolean precedence rules

author:Tiger* All entries with a citation that has an author whose name starts with Tiger. Note the field prefix author; had we left it out, there would have been a large amount of unwanted results.

gene:L\(1\)2CB All entries with the specified gene name. Note how the backslash is used to escape the brackets, which would otherwise be interpreted as part of a Boolean query. Other characters that must be escaped are: []{}?:~*

gene:* All entries that have a gene name.