Structure
Volume 11, Issue 1, January 2003, Pages 7-9
Journal home page for Structure

Minireview
Twenty Thousand ORFan Microbial Protein Families for the Biologist?

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0969-2126(02)00938-3Get rights and content
Under an Elsevier user license
open archive

Abstract

The genomes of most newly sequenced organisms contain a significant fraction of ORFs (open reading frames) that match no other sequence in the databases. We refer to these singleton ORFs as sequence ORFans. Because little can be learned about ORFans by homology, the origin and functions of ORFans remain a mystery. However, in this era of full genome sequencing, it seems that ORFans have been underemphasized. In this minireview, we draw attention to the increasing number of ORFans and to the consequences of this growth to biological research in the postgenomic era.

Cited by (0)