A survey of orphan enzyme activities.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Using computational database searches, we have demonstrated previously that no gene sequences could be found for at least 36% of enzyme activities that have been assigned an Enzyme Commission number. Here we present a follow-up literature-based survey involving a statistically significant sample of such "orphan" activities. The survey was intended to determine whether sequences for these enzyme activities are truly unknown, or whether these sequences are absent from the public sequence databases but can be found in the literature.

Results

We demonstrate that for ~80% of sampled orphans, the absence of sequence data is bona fide. Our analyses further substantiate the notion that many of these enzyme activities play biologically important roles.

Conclusion

Th

SUBMITTER: Pouliot Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1940265 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature