Abstract
A novel class of small proteins, called micropeptides, has recently been discovered in the genome. These proteins, which have been found to play important roles in many physiological and cellular systems, are shorter than 100 amino acids and were overlooked during previous genome annotations. Discovery and characterization of more micropeptides has been ongoing, often using -omics methods such as proteomics, RNA sequencing, and ribosome profiling. In this review, we survey the recent advances in the micropeptides field and describe the methodological and conceptual challenges facing future micropeptide endeavors.
Highlights
The sequencing and publication of complete genomic sequences of many organisms have aided the medical sciences greatly, allowing advances in both human genetics and the biology of human disease, as well as a greater understanding of the biology of human pathogens (Firth and Lipkin, 2013)
During the early stages of genome annotation, when genomes such as the human genome were first sequenced, a lower limit was placed on the length of an open reading frame (ORF) that could be considered a possible gene (Dujon et al, 1994)
Since ribosome profiling and mass spectrometry have so far been the most successful methods by which mammalian micropeptides have been discovered, we have recently proposed combining the two methods (Tharakan et al, 2020), in a socalled proteogenomics approach (Nesvizhskii, 2014)
Summary
A novel class of small proteins, called micropeptides, has recently been discovered in the genome. These proteins, which have been found to play important roles in many physiological and cellular systems, are shorter than 100 amino acids and were overlooked during previous genome annotations. Discovery and characterization of more micropeptides has been ongoing, often using -omics methods such as proteomics, RNA sequencing, and ribosome profiling. We survey the recent advances in the micropeptides field and describe the methodological and conceptual challenges facing future micropeptide endeavors
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