Hundreds of putatively functional small open reading frames in Drosophila.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The relationship between DNA sequence and encoded information is still an unsolved puzzle. The number of protein-coding genes in higher eukaryotes identified by genome projects is lower than was expected, while a considerable amount of putatively non-coding transcription has been detected. Functional small open reading frames (smORFs) are known to exist in several organisms. However, coding sequence detection methods are biased against detecting such very short open reading frames. Thus, a substantial number of non-canonical coding regions encoding short peptides might await characterization.

Results

Using bio-informatics methods, we have searched for smORFs of less than 100 amino acids in the putatively non-coding euchromatic DNA of Drosophila melanogaster, and i

SUBMITTER: Ladoukakis E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3334604 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature