Pfam 30.0 is available

Pfam 30.0, our second release based on UniProt reference proteomes, is now available. The new release contains a total of 16,306 families, with 22 new families and 11 families killed since the last release. The UniProt reference proteome set has expanded and now includes 17.7 million sequences, compared with 11.9 million when we made Pfam 29.0. In this release, we have updated the annotations on hundreds of Pfam entries, and renamed some of our Domains of Unknown Function (DUF) families.

DUFs are protein domains whose function is uncharacterised. Over time, as scientific knowledge increases and new data about proteins comes to light, more information about the function of a domain may become available. As a result, DUFs can be renamed and re-annotated with more meaningful descriptions. As part of Pfam 30.0, we have re-annotated 116 DUFs based on updated information in the UniProtKB database, the scientific literature, and feedback from Pfam and InterPro users. Examples of some our DUF updates in Pfam 30.0 are given below:

 

• PF10265, created in release 23.0 and originally named DUF2217, has been renamed to Miga, a family of proteins that promote mitochondrial fusion.
• PF10229, created in release 23.0 and originally named DUF2246, has been renamed as MMADHC, as it represents methylmalonic aciduria and homocystinuria type D proteins and their homologues.  The structure of this domain is shown below.

 

Structure of MMADHC dimer, PDB:5CV0

 

• PF12822, created in release 25.0 and originally named DUF3816, has been renamed to ECF_trnsprt, since it contains proteins identified as the substrate-specific component of energy-coupling factor (ECF) transporters.

Please note that we may change the identifier for a family (e.g. DUF2217), but we never change the accession for a family (e.g. PF10265).

If you find any more DUFs that can be assigned a name based on function, or any other annotation updates, please get in touch with us (pfam-help@ebi.ac.uk).