A new version of the Conserved Domain Database (CDD) and a new version of the CD-Search tool from NCBI were recently released.

From NCBI:

Proteins often contain several modules or domains, each with a distinct evolutionary origin and function. NCBI’s Conserved Domain Database is a collection of multiple sequence alignments for ancient domains and full-length proteins. The CD-Search service may be used to identify the conserved domains present in a protein query sequence.

The update to CDD includes a superfamilies feature and the CD-Search tool has been updated to show the search results as “specific hits.” These “specific hits” results

meet or exceed a statistical threshold and are high confidence associations between a query protein sequence and a conserved domain, resulting in a high confidence level for the inferred function of the protein query sequence

Please check out the CDD and CD-Search help documentation. It is incredibly useful! Here’s a screen shot from the documentation site:

I’ll be at a meeting next week, but I look forward to learning more about the new features when I return. Looks great!