Valdivia-Francia Fabiola, Sendoel Ataman
University of Zurich, Institute for Regenerative Medicine (IREM), Wagistrasse 12, 8952 Schlieren-Zurich, Switzerland.
Life Science Zurich Graduate School, Molecular Life Science Program, University of Zurich/ ETH Zurich, Schlieren-Zurich, Switzerland.
iScience. 2024 Jan 20;27(2):108972. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.108972. eCollection 2024 Feb 16.
Microproteins encoded by small open reading frames (sORFs) have emerged as a fascinating frontier in genomics. Traditionally overlooked due to their small size, recent technological advancements such as ribosome profiling, mass spectrometry-based strategies and advanced computational approaches have led to the annotation of more than 7000 sORFs in the human genome. Despite the vast progress, only a tiny portion of these microproteins have been characterized and an important challenge in the field lies in identifying functionally relevant microproteins and understanding their role in different cellular contexts. In this review, we explore the recent advancements in sORF research, focusing on the new methodologies and computational approaches that have facilitated their identification and functional characterization. Leveraging these new tools hold great promise for dissecting the diverse cellular roles of microproteins and will ultimately pave the way for understanding their role in the pathogenesis of diseases and identifying new therapeutic targets.
由小开放阅读框（sORFs）编码的微蛋白已成为基因组学中一个引人入胜的前沿领域。由于其尺寸小，传统上一直被忽视，而最近的技术进步，如核糖体谱分析、基于质谱的策略和先进的计算方法，已导致在人类基因组中注释了7000多个sORF。尽管取得了巨大进展，但这些微蛋白中只有一小部分得到了表征，该领域的一个重要挑战在于识别功能相关的微蛋白，并了解它们在不同细胞环境中的作用。在这篇综述中，我们探讨了sORF研究的最新进展，重点关注有助于其识别和功能表征的新方法和计算方法。利用这些新工具对于剖析微蛋白的多种细胞作用具有巨大潜力，并最终将为理解它们在疾病发病机制中的作用以及识别新的治疗靶点铺平道路。
