Centre de Biologie Intégrative, Laboratoire de Biologie Moléculaire, Cellulaire et du Dévelopment, UMR 5077 CNRS, UPS Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France.
Laboratoire de Recherche en Sciences Végétales, UMR 5546 UPS/CNRS/INPT, CNRS, UPS Université de Toulouse, Auzeville-Tolosan, France.
EMBO Rep. 2022 May 4;23(5):e54789. doi: 10.15252/embr.202254789. Epub 2022 Mar 28.
Short open reading frame (sORF)-encoded peptides (SEPs) recently emerged as new key players in biology. Pioneering work first established that sORFs encoded by long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are efficiently translated and produce functional peptides. In plants, primary transcripts of microRNAs (pri-miRNAs) also produce sORF-encoded peptides called miPEPs, which are involved in specific transcriptional autoregulatory feedback loops (Lauressergues et al, 2015). To what extend are such mechanisms conserved in other species, especially in animals? In this issue of EMBO reports, Zhou et al show that pri-miR-31 encodes a miPEP promoting Treg differentiation and downregulating pri-miR-31 expression (Zhou et al, 2022).
短开放阅读框 (sORF) 编码肽 (SEP) 最近成为生物学中的新关键因子。开创性的工作首先证实，长非编码 RNA (lncRNA) 编码的 sORFs 能够被有效地翻译并产生具有功能的肽。在植物中，microRNA (miRNA) 的初级转录物也产生 sORF 编码的肽，称为 miPEP，它们参与特定的转录自动反馈环 (Lauressergues 等人，2015)。这些机制在其他物种，特别是在动物中，能在多大程度上保守呢？在本期的《EMBO 报告》中，Zhou 等人表明，pri-miR-31 编码一种促进 Treg 分化和下调 pri-miR-31 表达的 miPEP (Zhou 等人，2022)。
