TransCODE Consortium Expands Human Proteome with Microproteins and Peptideins
The TransCODE Consortium has published a landmark study in Nature, revealing significant expansions to the human proteome through the identification of microproteins and peptideins. By analyzing 95,520 proteomics experiments, the team found that approximately 25% of 7,264 non-canonical open reading frames (ncORFs) produce detectable peptides. This research addresses the long-standing debate regarding the 'dark proteome' and the functional role of previously unannotated genetic sequences. The consortium introduced a new classification termed 'peptideins' for microproteins with indeterminate functional potential and developed an evolutionary analysis method called ORF relative branch length (ORBL) to assess their biological significance. The study confirms that evolutionary constraint is common among these ncORF-derived peptides and characterizes a pan-essential cellular phenotype for a peptidein from the OLMALINC long non-coding RNA. These findings, supported by GENCODE and PeptideAtlas, provide new public research tools and advance biomedical discovery, particularly in understanding disease mechanisms and potential therapeutic targets in cancer biology.
Wire timeline
TransCODE Consortium Expands Human Proteome with Microproteins and Peptideins
The TransCODE Consortium has published a landmark study in Nature, revealing significant expansions to the human proteome through the identification of microproteins and peptideins. By analyzing 95,520 proteomics experiments, the team found that approximately 25% of 7,264 non-canonical open reading frames (ncORFs) produce detectable peptides. This research addresses the long-standing debate regarding the 'dark proteome' and the functional role of previously unannotated genetic sequences. The consortium introduced a new classification termed 'peptideins' for microproteins with indeterminate functional potential and developed an evolutionary analysis method called ORF relative branch length (ORBL) to assess their biological significance. The study confirms that evolutionary constraint is common among these ncORF-derived peptides and characterizes a pan-essential cellular phenotype for a peptidein from the OLMALINC long non-coding RNA. These findings, supported by GENCODE and PeptideAtlas, provide new public research tools and advance biomedical discovery, particularly in understanding disease mechanisms and potential therapeutic targets in cancer biology.
Nature