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Identification of small ORF s in vertebrates using ribosome footprinting and evolutionary conservation
Author(s) -
Bazzini Ariel A,
Johnstone Timothy G,
Christiano Romain,
Mackowiak Sebastian D,
Obermayer Benedikt,
Fleming Elizabeth S,
Vejnar Charles E,
Lee Miler T,
Rajewsky Nikolaus,
Walther Tobias C,
Giraldez Antonio J
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the embo journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.484
H-Index - 392
eISSN - 1460-2075
pISSN - 0261-4189
DOI - 10.1002/embj.201488411
Subject(s) - biology , footprinting , orfs , identification (biology) , conserved sequence , evolutionary biology , genetics , ribosome , computational biology , gene , open reading frame , base sequence , ecology , rna , peptide sequence
Identification of the coding elements in the genome is a fundamental step to understanding the building blocks of living systems. Short peptides (< 100 aa) have emerged as important regulators of development and physiology, but their identification has been limited by their size. We have leveraged the periodicity of ribosome movement on the mRNA to define actively translated ORFs by ribosome footprinting. This approach identifies several hundred translated small ORFs in zebrafish and human. Computational prediction of small ORFs from codon conservation patterns corroborates and extends these findings and identifies conserved sequences in zebrafish and human, suggesting functional peptide products (micropeptides). These results identify micropeptide‐encoding genes in vertebrates, providing an entry point to define their function in vivo .