Open AccessDUFs: families in search of function
Author(s) -
Bateman Alex,
Coggill Penny,
Finn Robert D.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
acta crystallographica section f
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1744-3091
DOI - 10.1107/s1744309110001685
Subject(s) - function (biology) , structural genomics , computational biology , genomics , set (abstract data type) , protein family , biology , protein function , evolutionary biology , genetics , genome , protein structure , computer science , gene , biochemistry , programming language
Domains of unknown function (DUFs) are a large set of uncharacterized protein families that are found in the Pfam database. Here, the scale and growth of functionally uncharacterized families in biological databases are surveyed and the prospects for discovering their function are examined. In particular, the important role that structural genomics can play in identifying potential function is evaluated.