Pauli Andrea, Valen Eivind, Schier Alexander F
Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Bioessays. 2015 Jan;37(1):103-12. doi: 10.1002/bies.201400103. Epub 2014 Oct 24.
Over the past decade, high-throughput studies have identified many novel transcripts. While their existence is undisputed, their coding potential and functionality have remained controversial. Recent computational approaches guided by ribosome profiling have indicated that translation is far more pervasive than anticipated and takes place on many transcripts previously assumed to be non-coding. Some of these newly discovered translated transcripts encode short, functional proteins that had been missed in prior screens. Other transcripts are translated, but it might be the process of translation rather than the resulting peptides that serves a function. Here, we review annotation studies in zebrafish to discuss the challenges of placing RNAs onto the continuum that ranges from functional protein-encoding mRNAs to potentially non-functional peptide-producing RNAs to non-coding RNAs. As highlighted by the discovery of the novel signaling peptide Apela/ELABELA/Toddler, accurate annotations can give rise to exciting opportunities to identify the functions of previously uncharacterized transcripts.
在过去十年中，高通量研究已鉴定出许多新的转录本。虽然它们的存在无可争议，但其编码潜力和功能一直存在争议。最近以核糖体谱分析为指导的计算方法表明，翻译比预期更为普遍，并且发生在许多先前被认为是非编码的转录本上。这些新发现的翻译转录本中，有些编码短的功能性蛋白质，这些蛋白质在先前的筛选中被遗漏了。其他转录本也会被翻译，但可能是翻译过程而非产生的肽发挥了作用。在这里，我们回顾斑马鱼中的注释研究，以讨论将RNA置于从功能性蛋白质编码mRNA到潜在无功能的肽产生RNA再到非编码RNA的连续统一体上所面临的挑战。正如新型信号肽Apela/ELABELA/Toddler的发现所强调的那样，准确的注释可以带来令人兴奋的机会，以确定先前未表征的转录本的功能。
