PF03368: Dicer_dimer

Dicer dimerisation domain

Curation status: SEEDED
Seed status: EX DUF
Characterization: UNSCORED

Grounding

PF03368: Dicer dimerisation domain
IPR005034: integrated entry for Dicer dimerisation domain

Source description

This domain is found in members of the Dicer protein family which function in RNA interference, an evolutionarily conserved mechanism for gene silencing using double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) molecules. It is essential for the activity of Dicer [InterPro reference PUB00067933,InterPro reference PUB00043694]. It is a divergent double stranded RNA-binding domain [InterPro reference PUB00043692]. The N-terminal alpha helix of this domain is in a different orientation to that found in canonical dsRNA-binding domains. This results in a change of charge distribution at the potential dsRNA-binding surface and in the N- and C-termini of the domain being in close proximity [InterPro reference PUB00066744]. This domain has weak dsRNA-binding activity. It mediates heterodimerisation of Dicer proteins with their respective protein partners [InterPro reference PUB00066744].

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

13 verified sequence examples. FASTA

UniProt	Protein / organism	Sequence	Provenance
A1ZAW0	Endoribonuclease Dcr-2 Drosophila melanogaster	1722 aa; version 1 UniProt 2026_03	PTM REGISTRY MIRROR 2 sibling references ProteinTraitsMech: Pfam:PF20931 ProteinTraitsMech: UniProtKB:A1ZAW0
A4RHU9	Dicer-like protein 2 Pyricularia oryzae (strain 70-15 / ATCC MYA-4617 / FGSC 8958)	1485 aa; version 3 UniProt 2026_03	UNIPROT FETCH 1 sibling references ProteinTraitsMech: Pfam:PF26980
P34529	Endoribonuclease dcr-1 Caenorhabditis elegans	1910 aa; version 3 UniProt 2026_03	PTM REGISTRY MIRROR 3 sibling references ProteinTraitsMech: Pfam:PF03368 ProteinTraitsMech: PROSITE:PS00517 ProteinTraitsMech: UniProtKB:P34529
P84634	Dicer-like protein 4 Arabidopsis thaliana	1702 aa; version 2 UniProt 2026_03	PTM REGISTRY MIRROR 1 sibling references ProteinTraitsMech: UniProtKB:P84634
Q09884	Protein Dicer Schizosaccharomyces pombe (strain 972 / ATCC 24843)	1374 aa; version 1 UniProt 2026_03	UNIPROT FETCH 1 sibling references ProteinTraitsMech: Pfam:PF22389
Q0UL22	Dicer-like protein 2 Phaeosphaeria nodorum (strain SN15 / ATCC MYA-4574 / FGSC 10173)	1399 aa; version 2 UniProt 2026_03	UNIPROT FETCH 1 sibling references ProteinTraitsMech: Pfam:PF26980
Q2VF18	Dicer-like protein 2 Cryphonectria parasitica	1451 aa; version 1 UniProt 2026_03	UNIPROT FETCH 1 sibling references ProteinTraitsMech: Pfam:PF26980
Q3EBC8	Endoribonuclease Dicer homolog 2 Arabidopsis thaliana	1388 aa; version 2 UniProt 2026_03	PTM REGISTRY MIRROR 1 sibling references ProteinTraitsMech: UniProtKB:Q3EBC8
Q6TUI4	Endoribonuclease Dicer Bos taurus	1923 aa; version 3 UniProt 2026_03	UNIPROT FETCH 2 sibling references ProteinTraitsMech: Pfam:PF20932 ProteinTraitsMech: Pfam:PF20930
Q6TV19	Endoribonuclease Dicer Danio rerio	1865 aa; version 2 UniProt 2026_03	UNIPROT FETCH 2 sibling references ProteinTraitsMech: Pfam:PF03368 ProteinTraitsMech: PROSITE:PS00517

First 10 shown; the FASTA and family JSON contain all examples.

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: 8,259
matches: 8,274
proteomes: 2,973
taxa: 8,119
structures: 47
alphafold models: 1,094
domain architectures: 386

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

data/families/PF03368.yaml
Family YAML in this build

Download this family (JSON)

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.