Release 4.0 of the NCBI hidden Markov models (HMM) used by the Prokaryotic Genome Annotation Pipeline (PGAP) is now available from our FTP site. You can search this collection against your favorite prokaryotic proteins to identify their function using the HMMER sequence analysis package.
This release contains 17,443 models, including 94 new models since the last release. We have also updated names and added EC numbers and gene symbols to over 100 models. You can search and view the details of these HMMs in the newly deployed Protein Family Model collection that also includes conserved domain architectures and BlastRules and allows you to find all RefSeq proteins named by these profiles. See our recent post for more details.
The new Protein Family Model resource (Figure 1) provides a way for you to search across the evidence used by the NCBI annotation pipelines to name and classify proteins. You can find protein families by gene symbol, protein function, and many other terms. You have access to related proteins in the family and publications describing members. Protein Family Models includes protein profile hidden Markov models (HMMs) and BlastRules for prokaryotes, and conserved domain architectures for prokaryotes and eukaryotes. The HMMs in the collection include Pfam models, TIGRFAMs as well as models developed at NCBI either de novo, or from NCBI protein clusters. Each of the BlastRules (PMCID: 5753331) consists of one or more model proteins of known biological function with BLAST identity and coverage cutoffs. The conserved domain architectures are based on BLAST-compatible Position Specific Score Matrices (PSSMs) that constitute the NCBI Conserved Domain database.Figure 1. Protein Family Model resource pages. Top panel. Home page. Middle panel, selected results summaries from a fielded search for the DnaK gene product (DnaK[Gene Symbol]). Bottom panel, a portion of an HMM record for DnaK derived from NCBI Protein Clusters (NF009946). The record also includes PubMed citations and HMMER analyses showing the RefSeq proteins named by this method.
Figure 1. Protein Family Model resource pages. Top panel. Home page. Middle panel, selected results summaries from a fielded search for the DnaK gene product (