Dfam 3.5 release

We are pleased to announce the the Dfam 3.5 release, which includes both new annotation data (available for download) and additional TE (transposable element) models and species.

TE annotation data

As part of this release, we have added annotation data for the curated TE entries for all of the extant species as part of the Zoonomia project (Figure 1). These data were curated by the combined work of David Ray’s lab at Texas Tech University (TTU) as well as the Smit group at the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), and include young, lineage-specific TE models.

Figure 1: Example of the genomic annotation for a Dfam TE model.

TE models

271 Lineage-specific, curated LTR TE models for the reconstructed ancestor of New World monkeys as part of the Zoonomia project have also been added.Additional uncurated entries (DR records) have also been added for the duckweed (607 models) and Atlantic cod (2751 models) as part of TE families submitted to Dfam via the website interface. The next Dfam release will include additional submitted datasets. With the addition of these new families, Dfam now houses 285,542 TE models across 595 species (Figure 2; Figure 3). We look forward to the continued growth of Dfam!

Figure 2: Dfam model growth. Numbers above each bar indicate the number of total models in Dfam at the time of the indicated release.

Figure 3: Dfam species growth. Numbers above each bar indicates the number of total species in Dfam at the time of the indicated release.