Xiaoping Dong, Kun Zhang, Chengfeng Xun, Tianqi Chu, Songping Liang, Yong Zeng, Zhonghua Liu
Small open reading frames (sORFs) are often overlooked features in genomes. In the past, they were labeled as noncoding or "transcriptional noise". However, accumulating evidence from recent years suggests that sORFs may be transcribed and translated to produce sORF-encoded polypeptides (SEPs) with less than 100 amino acids. The vigorous development of computational algorithms, ribosome profiling, and peptidome has facilitated the prediction and identification of many new SEPs. These SEPs were revealed to be involved in a wide range of basic biological processes, such as gene expression regulation, embryonic development, cellular metabolism, inflammation, and even carcinogenesis...
June 23, 2023: International Journal of Molecular Sciences