Large-Scale Analyses of Human Microbiomes Reveal Thousands of Small, Novel Genes.

ABSTRACT: Small proteins are traditionally overlooked due to computational and experimental difficulties in detecting them. To systematically identify small proteins, we carried out a comparative genomics study on 1,773 human-associated metagenomes from four different body sites. We describe >4,000 conserved protein families, the majority of which are novel; ∼30% of these protein families are predicted to be secreted or transmembrane. Over 90% of the small protein families have no known domain and almost half are not represented in reference genomes. We identify putative housekeeping, mammalian-specific, defense-related, and protein families that are likely to be horizontally transferred. We provide evidence of transcription and translation for a subset of these families. Our study suggests that sma

SUBMITTER: Sberro H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6764417 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature