Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42803189›Full record

ArticleNucleic acids research2026

"Quadrupling" the protein family space with global metagenomics.

Eleni Aplakidou, Fotis A Baltoumas, Maria N Chasapi, Efthimia Lamari, Iro N Chasapi, IIias Georgakopoulos-Soares, Evangelos Karatzas, Ioannis Iliopoulos, Aydin Buluç, Robert D Finn and 3 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nucleic acids research, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

13 authors.

Eleni AplakidouInstitute for Fundamental Biomedical Research, BSRC "Alexander Fleming", Vari 16672, Greece.ORCID 0009-0002-0737-4817
Fotis A BaltoumasInstitute for Fundamental Biomedical Research, BSRC "Alexander Fleming", Vari 16672, Greece.ORCID 0000-0002-2870-2931
Maria N ChasapiInstitute for Fundamental Biomedical Research, BSRC "Alexander Fleming", Vari 16672, Greece.ORCID 0009-0009-0336-0515
Efthimia LamariInstitute for Fundamental Biomedical Research, BSRC "Alexander Fleming", Vari 16672, Greece.
Iro N ChasapiInstitute for Fundamental Biomedical Research, BSRC "Alexander Fleming", Vari 16672, Greece.
IIias Georgakopoulos-SoaresInstitute for Personalized Medicine, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA 17033, United States.
Evangelos KaratzasEuropean Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, United Kingdom.
Ioannis IliopoulosDivision of Basic Sciences, University of Crete Medical School, Heraklion 71110, Greece.ORCID 0000-0002-9079-0565
Aydin BuluçComputational Research Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States.
Robert D FinnEuropean Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SD, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0001-8626-2148
Antonio Pedro CamargoDOE Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States.ORCID 0000-0003-3913-2484
Nikos C KyrpidesDOE Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States.ORCID 0000-0002-6131-0462
Georgios A PavlopoulosInstitute for Fundamental Biomedical Research, BSRC "Alexander Fleming", Vari 16672, Greece.ORCID 0000-0002-4577-8276

Funding

Advanced Scientific Computing Research DE-AC02-05CH11231Foundation for Research and Innovation 23592-EMISSIONHellenic Foundation for Research and InnovationMarie Skłodowska-Curie Grant agreement 945405Research Project to support Postdoctoral Researchers' 28787-VIROMINEUniversity of Texas at Austin DE-AC02-05CH11231US Department of EnergyUS Department of Energy Office of Science DE-AC02-05CH11231
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The known universe of protein families represents only a small fraction of nature's molecular diversity. From 40.3 billion predicted open reading frames across 40 446 metagenomes, 9540 metatranscriptomes, and 539 million proteins from 167 415 reference genomes, we identified 608 258 previously uncharacterized putative protein families with ≥100 members and 6.5 million families with ≥25 members, none matching known Pfam domains or reference proteins. This effort doubles the known repertoire of large families and quadruples that of smaller families. Integration of AlphaFold2-based structural predictions with gene-neighborhood and taxonomic analyses enables the characterization of these previously unannotated proteins, revealing candidates for both novel and known biological functions in understudied microbial lineages and biomes. This expanded repertoire provides insights into microbial adaptation and broadens the molecular toolkit available for biotechnology, highlighting the power of global metagenomics to uncover hidden protein diversity.

Indexed as

MetagenomeMetagenomicsProteinsMultigene FamilyOpen Reading FramesProteins

Identifiers

PMID42803189
PMCPMC13617357

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.