All families / PF01881
PF01881: Cas_Cas6_C
CRISPR associated protein Cas6, C-terminal
- Curation status
- SEEDED
- Seed status
- EX DUF
- Characterization
- UNSCORED
Grounding
PF01881: CRISPR associated protein Cas6, C-terminal
IPR049435: integrated entry for CRISPR associated protein Cas6, C-terminal
Source description
This group of families is one of several protein families that are always found associated with prokaryotic CRISPRs, themselves a family of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, DNA repeats found in nearly half of all bacterial and archaeal genomes. These DNA repeat regions have a remarkably regular structure: unique sequences of constant size, called spacers, sit between each pair of repeats [InterPro reference PUB00020781]. It has been shown that the CRISPRs are virus-derived sequences acquired by the host to enable them to resist viral infection. The Cas proteins from the host use the CRISPRs to mediate an antiviral response. After transcription of the CRISPR, a complex of Cas proteins termed Cascade cleaves a CRISPR RNA precursor in each repeat and retains the cleavage products containing the virus-derived sequence. Assisted by the helicase Cas3, these mature CRISPR RNAs then serve as small guide RNAs that enable Cascade to interfere with virus proliferation [InterPro reference PUB00106643]. Cas5 contains an endonuclease motif, whose inactivation leads to loss of resistance, even in the presence of phage-derived spacers [InterPro reference PUB00109113]. In Type I and III CRISPR/Cas systems, the Cas6 family of endoribonucleases generates functional CRISPR-derived RNAs by site-specific cleavage of repeat sequences in precursor transcripts. The structure of Cas6 [InterPro reference PUB00098896] showed it adopts a tandem ferredoxin/RRM fold. This entry represents the C-terminal domain.
Evidence and references
- InterPro entry and its literature references. PUB identifiers are internal InterPro references, not PubMed identifiers. Unresolved citations link to the originating entry.
- Frozen description source: InterPro/Pfam API
Source descriptions and links are provenance, not independent functional validation.
Evidence counts: not scored.
Curated functional assertions
No curated functional assertions supplied.
Protein sequence examples
6 verified sequence examples. FASTA
| UniProt | Protein / organism | Sequence | Provenance |
|---|---|---|---|
| D4GQN4 | CRISPR-associated endoribonuclease Cas6 Haloferax volcanii (strain ATCC 29605 / DSM 3757 / JCM 8879 / NBRC 14742 / NCIMB 2012 / VKM B-1768 / DS2) | 272 aa; version 1 UniProt 2026_03 | UNIPROT FETCH1 sibling references |
| I3RB26 | CRISPR-associated endoribonuclease Cas6 Haloferax mediterranei (strain ATCC 33500 / DSM 1411 / JCM 8866 / NBRC 14739 / NCIMB 2177 / R-4) | 270 aa; version 1 UniProt 2026_03 | UNIPROT FETCH1 sibling references |
| O58931 | CRISPR-associated endoribonuclease Cas6 Pyrococcus horikoshii (strain ATCC 700860 / DSM 12428 / JCM 9974 / NBRC 100139 / OT-3) | 267 aa; version 1 UniProt 2026_03 | UNIPROT FETCH1 sibling references |
| Q57820 | CRISPR-associated endoribonuclease Cas6 1 Methanocaldococcus jannaschii (strain ATCC 43067 / DSM 2661 / JAL-1 / JCM 10045 / NBRC 100440) | 254 aa; version 1 UniProt 2026_03 | PTM REGISTRY MIRROR |
| Q58631 | CRISPR-associated endoribonuclease Cas6 2 Methanocaldococcus jannaschii (strain ATCC 43067 / DSM 2661 / JAL-1 / JCM 10045 / NBRC 100440) | 241 aa; version 1 UniProt 2026_03 | UNIPROT FETCH |
| Q8U1S4 | CRISPR-associated endoribonuclease Cas6 Pyrococcus furiosus (strain ATCC 43587 / DSM 3638 / JCM 8422 / Vc1) | 264 aa; version 1 UniProt 2026_03 | UNIPROT FETCH2 sibling references |
Pfam membership is not functional evidence. Whole-protein sequences do not establish domain boundaries. A coverage gap here is not absence from UniProt.
Sequences and metadata: UniProt Consortium, CC BY 4.0.
Domain matches
No residue-level domain match evidence is available in this build. Structure and AlphaFold counters do not supply coordinates or establish function.
Snapshot counters
- proteins
- 1,831
- matches
- 1,832
- proteomes
- 1,415
- taxa
- 2,926
- structures
- 7
- alphafold models
- 1,415
- domain architectures
- 4
Classification basis
pfam previous unknown name
No scoring reasons supplied.
Related Mech records
This family joined the worklist after the frozen cross-Mech scan, so other Mechs were not searched for it. Missing links here are not evidence that other Mechs lack it; rows shown come from mentions of a former DUF/UPF name.
No cross-Mech examples are present in the supplied snapshot.
Curation history and reviews
No retained curation events supplied.
No retained review supplied.
Record source
Status and evidence
- Seed status
- A name-based classification of frozen InterPro/Pfam metadata. UNKNOWN CANDIDATE means the metadata explicitly says the function is unknown. KNOWN HISTORICAL DUF means a DUF name matched without that wording; this heuristic is not proof of a known function and does not establish experimental characterization. EX DUF means Pfam renamed the family away from a DUF/UPF name, as recorded in Pfam's previous identifiers; a rename usually follows published work on some members but is naming history, not proof of function for every member. Some EX DUF families' current names or descriptions still say the function is unknown; their classification basis lists this, and scoring does not treat them as characterized. FALSE POSITIVE TEXT HIT means the naming rules did not match.
- Characterization
- A separate evidence-scoring result. UNSCORED means no score has been calculated; it is not evidence that the family lacks a known function. Missing scores are not negative evidence. PARTIALLY CHARACTERIZED has partial support; KNOWN HISTORICAL DUF can inherit the seed label or reflect a known-function signal. Neither label implies experimental validation.
- Evidence counts
- Source-specific signals, not unique proteins, publications, or confidence scores. Known counts Rhea reactions and experimentally supported GO molecular-function annotations. Partial counts functional/domain assignments. Context counts structural, environmental, orthology, interaction and neighborhood signals; context alone does not assign function. Repeated annotations may not be independent.
- Curation status
- Reported separately from seed classification and characterization. SNAPSHOT ONLY means no curated metadata was supplied for this build. SEEDED denotes a source-derived record, not an expert-reviewed functional claim.
- Missing counts
- Not available means the source did not supply that counter. A zero is a reported count. Not scored means evidence counts are unavailable.