Bioinformatics prediction of overlapping frameshifted translation products in mammalian transcripts.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Exceptionally, a single nucleotide sequence can be translated in vivo in two different frames to yield distinct proteins. In the case of the G-protein alpha subunit XL-alpha-s transcript, a frameshifted open reading frame (ORF) in exon 1 is translated to yield a structurally distinct protein called Alex, which plays a role in platelet aggregation and neurological processes. We carried out a novel bioinformatics screen for other possible dual-frame translated sequences, based on comparative genomics.

Results

Our method searched human, mouse and rat transcripts in frames +1 and -1 for ORFs which are unusually well conserved at the amino acid level. We name these conserved frameshifted overlapping ORFs 'matreshkas' to reflect their nested character. Select findings o

SUBMITTER: Ribrioux S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2329644 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature