National Center for Soybean Improvement, Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetics and Breeding for Soybean, Ministry of Agriculture, State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
Department of Botany, Jagannath University, Dhaka 1100, Bangladesh.
Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Feb 20;24(4):4187. doi: 10.3390/ijms24044187.
Domain of unknown function (DUF) is a general term for many uncharacterized domains with two distinct features: relatively conservative amino acid sequence and unknown function of the domain. In the Pfam 35.0 database, 4795 (24%) gene families belong to the DUF type, yet, their functions remain to be explored. This review summarizes the characteristics of the DUF protein families and their functions in regulating plant growth and development, generating responses to biotic and abiotic stress, and other regulatory roles in plant life. Though very limited information is available about these proteins yet, by taking advantage of emerging omics and bioinformatic tools, functional studies of DUF proteins could be utilized in future molecular studies.
未知功能域（DUF）是许多未被阐明的结构域的通用术语，这些结构域具有两个显著特征：相对保守的氨基酸序列和该结构域未知的功能。在 Pfam 35.0 数据库中，有 4795 个（24%）基因家族属于 DUF 类型，但其功能仍有待探索。本综述总结了 DUF 蛋白家族的特征及其在调节植物生长发育、应对生物和非生物胁迫以及其他植物生命调控中的功能。尽管目前关于这些蛋白质的信息非常有限，但利用新兴的组学和生物信息学工具，可以在未来的分子研究中对 DUF 蛋白进行功能研究。
