Conference Review

Unravelling the ORFan puzzle

  1. Naomi Siew1,2,
  2. Daniel Fischer2,*

Article first published online: 21 AUG 2003

DOI: 10.1002/cfg.311

Issue

Comparative and Functional Genomics

Comparative and Functional Genomics

Volume 4, Issue 4, pages 432–441, August 2003

Additional Information

How to Cite

Siew, N. and Fischer, D. (2003), Unravelling the ORFan puzzle. Comparative and Functional Genomics, 4: 432–441. doi: 10.1002/cfg.311

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Chemistry, Ben Gurion University, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel

  2. 2

    Bioinformatics Group, Department of Computer Science, Ben Gurion University, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel

*Bioinformatics Group, Department of Computer Science, Ben Gurion University, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 21 AUG 2003
  2. Article first published online: 21 AUG 2003
  3. Manuscript Revised: 5 JUN 2003
  4. Manuscript Accepted: 5 JUN 2003
  5. Manuscript Received: 7 MAY 2003

Funded by

  • USA–Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF), Israel
  • Ministry of Science, Israel
  • Kreitman Foundation, Israel

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Keywords:

  • ORFans;
  • evolution;
  • functional genomics;
  • power-law;
  • structural genomics

Abstract

ORFans are open reading frames (ORFs) with no detectable sequence similarity to any other sequence in the databases. Each newly sequenced genome contains a significant number of ORFans. Therefore, ORFans entail interesting evolutionary puzzles. However, little can be learned about them using bioinformatics tools, and their study seems to have been underemphasized. Here we present some of the questions that the existence of so many ORFans have raised and review some of the studies aimed at understanding ORFans, their functions and their origins. These works have demonstrated that ORFans are an untapped source of research, requiring further computational and experimental studies. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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