Cis to trans: small ORF functions emerging through evolution
Hundreds of thousands of small open reading frames (smORFs) of less than 100 codons exist in every genome, especially in long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) and in the 5′ leaders of mRNAs. smORFs are often discarded as nonfunctional, but ribosomal profiling (RiboSeq) reveals that thousands are translated,...
| Autores: | , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2025 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/393540 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/393540 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Small ORFs Short ORFs SmORF-encoded peptides Microproteins lncRNAs |
| Sumario: | Hundreds of thousands of small open reading frames (smORFs) of less than 100 codons exist in every genome, especially in long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) and in the 5′ leaders of mRNAs. smORFs are often discarded as nonfunctional, but ribosomal profiling (RiboSeq) reveals that thousands are translated, while characterised smORF functions have risen from anecdotal to identifiable trends: smORFs can either have a cis-noncoding regulatory function (involving low translation of nonfunctional peptides) or full coding function mediated by robustly translated peptides, often having cellular and physiological roles as membrane-associated regulators of canonical proteins. The evolutionary context reveals that many smORFs represent new genes emerging de novo from noncoding sequences. We suggest a mechanism for this process, where cis-noncoding smORF functions provide niches for the subsequent evolution of full peptide functions. |
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