Rv1271c Family assigned · low

H37Rv Rv1271c · MTBC0 mtbc0_001361 · 113 aa · 1428944–1429285 MTBC0 (-) · RefSeq NP_215787.1

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Annotation: from legacy to revised

Legacy (H37Rv / Mycobrowser)hypothetical protein
MTBC0 PGAP re-annotationDUF732 domain-containing protein
Revised (this work)Secreted protein recognised as an antigen (antibody responses during active TB). Pfam DUF732 (a mycobacterial domain of unknown function). Molecular function unfixed.
Functional category (TubercuList)cell wall and cell processes

In the literature (TB corpus sweep) 1 publication

Found under: H37Rv (1).

1 TB publication mentions this gene. 1 publication(s) mention this gene (title/abstract), verified against the text. The atlas states the function; these are the primary sources that discuss it.

PublicationDate
Immunological characterization of novel secreted antigens of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. doi:10.1111/j.0300-9475.2005.01557.x 2005

This layer CITES the literature, it does not change the verdict or the function. A gene may be heavily studied (as an antigen, a resistance determinant, a drug target) while its molecular function is settled elsewhere in the fiche. This distinguishes a gene that is dark because nobody has looked from one that is dark despite having been studied. Source: PubMed (whole), MULTI-ALIAS sweep: H37Rv locus tag AND every ortholog identifier (M. bovis Mb…, M. marinum MMAR_…, M. smegmatis MSMEG_…, M. leprae ML…, M. abscessus MAB_…), each hit VERIFIED against the abstract text (word-boundary regex). phase73/phase75, 2026-07-13.

Intrinsic disorder (sequence + structure) partially disordered

Predicted disorder33% of residues (metapredict) · mean AlphaFold pLDDT 79.3
Disordered regions1 IDR(s), longest 38 aa [0-38]

carries a substantial disordered region (38/113 residues); disorder is a property, not a function

A property (biophysics), not a function. No LLPS/condensate claim is made from disorder alone. Verdict unchanged. Source: metapredict v3 (Emenecker/Holehouse) per-residue disorder + AlphaFold mean pLDDT (annotation_mtbc P16.13).

CRISPRi vulnerability

Vulnerability index 0.92 (95% CI -0.36 to 2.95). A more negative index = more vulnerable to knockdown (better drug-target quality); indicative threshold VI ≤ -6 = highly vulnerable.

Quantitative CRISPRi knockdown, graded (finer than binary Tn-seq essentiality). Source: CRISPRi vulnerability index (Bosch 2021, pebble.rockefeller.edu).

Orthologues (reciprocal best hits across mycobacteria)

M. bovis Mb1302c · 100.0% identity
M. marinum MMAR_4151 · 75.0% identity
M. orygis RJtmp_001338 · 100.0% identity

Reciprocal-best-hit orthologues (DIAMOND) against the Mycobrowser reference proteomes. A missing species is informative: e.g. a gene absent from M. leprae was likely lost in its reductive genome evolution. Locus tags link to Mycobrowser.

Curated reference (UniProt)

UniProt P9WM43 SwissProt · reviewed · Inferred from homology
UniProt nameUncharacterized protein Rv1271c

UniProt still lists this protein as Uncharacterized protein Rv1271c; the revised annotation above is ahead of the current UniProt record.

Functional vocabulary (eggNOG-mapper, orthology transfer)

COG category S Function unknown
eggNOG descriptionProtein of unknown function (DUF732)
Orthologous group2BN0A

Orthology-based transfer (eggNOG 5.0.2, diamond). EC/KO/GO/CAZy are computed annotations, not manual curation; cross-check against the primary literature before treating a specific reaction as established.

Conservation & selection (intra-MTBC, 145 209 strains)

pN/pS 0.0 · strong purifying
Polymorphic sites (≥ 0.1% of strains) 2 synonymous, 0 missense, 0 nonsense, 0 frameshift

pN/pS from segregating SNPs (singletons removed) normalised by possible sites. Low pN/pS = purifying selection (a strong signal that a "hypothetical" is a real, constrained gene). A high pN/pS is ambiguous: relaxed constraint or positive selection (drug resistance, antigenic variation) inflate it; e.g. rpoB/katG/pncA score high here for resistance, not loss of function. A clonal disruption (one allele over a clade) suggests lineage pseudogenisation; a convergent one (many independent alleles) is typical of resistance loss-of-function.

Outgroup conservation (beyond the MTBC) Mycobacterium

Genus-wide presence (~53 non-MTBC Mycobacterium) present in 49/53 (92%) · mean identity 54.5% · 4/4 closest MTBAP relatives
conserved across the genus (present in 49/53 non-MTBC Mycobacterium genomes, incl. distant relatives) — an ancient core gene predating the genus radiation
Phylostratum (deepest detected homolog) MTBC-specific Mycobacterium Mycobacteriaceae Corynebacteriales Actinomycetia Bacteria

present across the genus Mycobacterium (NTM) but not detected in any non-Mycobacterium genome — a Mycobacterium-genus gene

Two orthogonal outgroup signals. M. canettii (the immediate outgroup) gives a deep-divergence dN/dS (a low value confirms a constrained, real gene; shown as confident only at ≥8 substitutions, else flagged low-power). Genus-wide presence/absence (tblastn vs assembled non-MTBC genomes) places the gene on the ancient-core ↔ MTBC-specific axis: a gene absent even from the closest MTBAP relatives is a candidate MTBC-specific innovation (possible host-adaptation factor, to confirm by synteny). The phylostratum extends that axis outside the genus (tblastn vs 13 reference genomes spanning Mycobacteriaceae → Corynebacteriales → Actinomycetia → outside the phylum): it is the deepest clade in which a homolog is still detected, i.e. a proxy for gene age. Read it with the null model in mind: a shallow (young) stratum can also reflect homology-detection failure for short or fast-evolving ORFs, so it is a descriptive axis, not a proof of novelty.

Essentiality (transposon mutagenesis)

DeJesus 2017 callNE · non-essential
What the call meansnon-essential
TA sites (Himar1) 8 in the ORF — 0 in the essential state, 0 growth-defect, 8 non-essential, 0 growth-advantage. Saturation 0.875, mean read count 72.8571428571. A region of the protein devoid of TA sites is invisible to this assay: nothing can be inferred about it, in either direction.
CaveatRead with some caution: only 8 TA (Himar1) sites in the whole ORF (atlas median 13). The DeJesus 2017 call rests on fewer independent observations than for a longer gene. If this gene overlaps a neighbour (see Genomic-neighbour overlap section below), some of these 8 sites may fall inside the neighbour's ORF rather than its own, leaving even fewer truly informative sites than the raw count suggests. (P20.3)

Genome-wide Himar1 transposon essentiality in H37Rv (DeJesus 2017). An essential call (ES/ESD/GD) is strong, independent evidence that a "hypothetical" locus encodes a functional, selectively required gene — orthogonal to intra-species conservation.

Proteomics (mass spectrometry) detected

MS detectiondetected in 6 of 16 independent MS datasets
Integrated abundance20.3 ppm · rank 2335/3519 (33.7th percentile)

Detection by mass spectrometry is direct, experimental evidence that the protein product exists — orthogonal to sequence conservation and to Tn-seq essentiality, and especially decisive for a "hypothetical" locus. Reproducible detection across several independent datasets (PaxDb) makes the existence claim robust; the integrated abundance places the protein in the proteome's dynamic range.

Predicted localisation (DeepTMHMM + lipobox) signal peptide

Predictionpredicted secreted protein (signal peptide)
DeepTMHMM classSP

Transmembrane topology and signal peptide from DeepTMHMM (deep-learning reference predictor); lipoproteins from a (myco)bacterial lipobox motif. A sequence-based prediction of subcellular context.

Physico-chemical properties (computed, ProtParam)

Length113 aa
Molecular weight11.6 kDa
Theoretical pI4.86
GRAVY0.273 (hydrophobic)
Aliphatic index88.3
Aromaticity0.062
Instability index34.0 (stable)

Computed from the ancestral MTBC0 sequence with the ExPASy ProtParam method (Biopython). Descriptive biophysical context: a positive GRAVY flags a hydrophobic (often membrane) protein, a high instability index (>40) predicts a short in-vitro half-life, an extreme pI hints at compartment or binding partner.

Domains (Pfam, hmmscan --cut_ga)

PfamAccessioni-EvalueResiduesDescription
DUF732PF05305.20 2.8e-1837–107 Protein of unknown function (DUF732)

Structural neighbours (Foldseek on the ESMFold model, exploratory)

ESMFold model confidence: mean pLDDT 71.1 (confident). A confident model makes the fold comparison meaningful.

Best matches against the PDB, ranked by Foldseek homology probability. A high probability / TM-score suggests a shared fold; unless flagged sig (E < 0.01) these are fold hypotheses, not assignments.

TargetProbTME-valueDescription
2gtg-assembly1_A 0.09 0.43 4.5e+00 2gtg-assembly1_A Crystal Structure of Human Saposin C
4rue-assembly1_B 0.06 0.28 5.3e+00 4rue-assembly1_B Human K2P4.1 (TRAAK) potassium channel, G124I mutant
6w8f-assembly1_B 0.05 0.28 7.1e+00 6w8f-assembly1_B K2P2.1 (TREK-1):ML335 complex, 0 mM K+
6w84-assembly1_B 0.03 0.27 8.9e+00 6w84-assembly1_B K2P2.1 (TREK-1), 200 mM K+
7sii-assembly1_C 0.02 0.18 5.0e+00 7sii-assembly1_C Human STING bound to both cGAMP and 1-[(2-chloro-6-fluorophenyl)methyl]-3,3-dimethyl-2-oxo-N-[(2,4,6-trifluorophenyl)methyl]-2,3-dihydro-1H-indole-6-carboxamide (Compound 53)

Genomic context (neighbours & predicted operon)

Upstream (5' on genome)lprA (- strand, 212 bp gap)
Downstream (3' on genome)Rv1272c (- strand, 107 bp gap)

Neighbours from the H37Rv annotation (- strand). The operon is predicted by co-directional intergenic distance (same strand, gaps ≤50 bp) — a transcription-unit hypothesis, not a mapped TSS. For a "hypothetical", co-transcription with a characterised operon is a concrete functional lead (complements the STRING neighborhood channel below).

Functional interaction network (STRING v12, guilt-by-association)

Explore full network →

Node colour = verdict, dashed = hypothetical; edge colour = evidence (green experimental, orange genomic-context, grey co-expression), width ∝ score. Click a partner to open its page; "Explore full network" to walk the graph.

Closest characterised functional partner: Rv1272c (drug ABC transporter ATP-binding protein), medium confidence from genomic context alone (score 572 excluding text-mining). This association is the citable seed of a function hypothesis for this hypothetical protein.

PartnerProductScoreNo text-miningChannels (≥400)
Rv1272c drug ABC transporter ATP-binding protein 572 572 ctx neighborhood:572
Rv1273c drug ABC transporter ATP-binding protein 534 534 ctx neighborhood:534
Rv1270c lprA lipoprotein LprA 469 468 ctx neighborhood:468
Rv0603 hyp hypothetical protein 870 41 textmining:870
Rv2253 hyp hypothetical protein 870 41 textmining:870
Rv0203 hyp hypothetical protein 696 41 textmining:696
Rv0934 pstS1 phosphate ABC transporter substrate-binding lipoprotein PstS 511 41 textmining:511

STRING combines evidence channels (neighborhood, fusion, cooccurrence, coexpression, experimental, database, text-mining) into a 0–1000 score. The ctx badge marks edges carried by the genomic-context channels (conserved neighborhood, fusion, phylogenetic co-occurrence), which are independent of orthology and structure and the strongest signal for an unknown gene. The exp badge marks an experimentally-supported partner (measured interaction, experimental/database channel ≥400) as opposed to a purely predicted one — but note that the M. tuberculosis experimental interactome is dominated by a noisy bacterial-two-hybrid screen, so a strong measured link that contradicts the operon/localisation context is likely a false positive. The no text-mining column recomputes the score from data alone, so a link that does not depend on the literature is visible. Association is a function hypothesis, not proof: corroborate with the operon context and the primary literature before assigning a function.

Evidence

  • Novel secreted antigen; antibody response in active TB (Ben Amor 2005, PMID 15683450)
  • Pfam DUF732
  • Curated from the literature crible (project 'Still unknown gene function', 2026-06-09)

Sources

  • Ancestral sequence & coordinates: Harrison LB et al. (2024), An imputed ancestral reference genome for the MTBC, doi:10.1101/2023.09.07.556366
  • Product annotation: NCBI PGAP on MTBC0; legacy from H37Rv NC_000962.3 (RefSeq NP_215787.1)
  • Domains: Pfam-A via hmmscan --cut_ga — DUF732 (PF05305.20)
  • Sequence-level signal: ESM Atlas (EvolutionaryScale × BioHub) — exploratory
  • Controlled vocabulary: eggNOG-mapper 2.1.12 (Cantalapiedra et al. 2021, doi:10.1093/molbev/msab293), eggNOG 5.0 DB (Huerta-Cepas et al. 2019) — OG 2BN0A
  • Curated reference: UniProt P9WM43 (SwissProt, reviewed; Inferred from homology)
  • Intra-MTBC selection: pN/pS and disruption from SPDI variants of 145 209 MTBC strains (this work, local collection vs H37Rv NC_000962.3)
  • Model confidence: ESMFold per-residue pLDDT (mean 71.1, confident)
  • Genome-wide structure: AlphaFold DB model (Jumper et al. 2021, doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2; Varadi et al. 2024, doi:10.1093/nar/gkad1011) searched vs PDB with Foldseek (mean pLDDT 79.3)
  • Interaction network: STRING v12.0 (Szklarczyk et al. 2023, doi:10.1093/nar/gkac1000), taxon 83332, CC-BY 4.0 — 7 functional partner(s); context anchor Rv1272c
  • Essentiality: genome-wide transposon mutagenesis in H37Rv — DeJesus et al. 2017 (mBio, doi:10.1128/mBio.02133-16, CC BY)
  • Proteomics: integrated mass-spectrometry abundance from PaxDb 5.0 (Huang et al. 2023, doi:10.1016/j.mcpro.2023.100640), taxon 83332 — weighted average of 16 datasets, incl. Schubert et al. 2013 (doi:10.1016/j.chom.2013.04.008) and Albrethsen et al. 2013 (doi:10.1074/mcp.M112.018846)
  • Functional category: TubercuList scheme (Cole et al. 1998, doi:10.1038/31159), via Mycobrowser (Kapopoulou et al. 2011, doi:10.1016/j.tube.2010.09.006)
  • Orthologues: reciprocal best hits (DIAMOND, Buchfink et al. 2021, doi:10.1038/s41592-021-01101-x) against Mycobrowser release 5 reference proteomes
  • Genomic context / operon: H37Rv annotation; operon predicted by co-directional intergenic distance (Salgado et al. 2000, doi:10.1073/pnas.030539397)
  • Physico-chemical properties: ExPASy ProtParam method via Biopython (Gasteiger et al. 2005), computed from the MTBC0 sequence
  • Predicted localisation: DeepTMHMM (Hallgren et al. 2022, doi:10.1101/2022.04.08.487609) for transmembrane topology and signal peptide
  • Primary literature: Ben Amor Y, Shashkina E, Johnson S, Bifani PJ, Kurepina N, Kreiswirth B, Bhattacharya S, Spencer J, Rendon A, Catanzaro A, Gennaro ML (2005). Immunological characterization of novel secreted antigens of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Scand J Immunol 61(2):139-46. doi:10.1111/j.0300-9475.2005.01557.x PMID:15683450

Ancestral MTBC0 protein sequence

>mtbc0_001361|Rv1271c|
MLSPLSPRIIAAFTTAVGAAAIGLAVATAGTAGANTKDEAFIAQMESIGVTFSSPQVATQQAQLVCKKLASGETGTEIAEEVLSQTNLTTKQAAYFVVDATKAYCPQYASQLT