A vast pool of lineage-specific microproteins encoded by long non-coding RNAs in plants.

ABSTRACT: Pervasive transcription of eukaryotic genomes results in expression of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) most of which are poorly conserved in evolution and appear to be non-functional. However, some lncRNAs have been shown to perform specific functions, in particular, transcription regulation. Thousands of small open reading frames (smORFs, <100 codons) located on lncRNAs potentially might be translated into peptides or microproteins. We report a comprehensive analysis of the conservation and evolutionary trajectories of lncRNAs-smORFs from the moss Physcomitrium patens across transcriptomes of 479 plant species. Although thousands of smORFs are subject to substantial purifying selection, the majority of the smORFs appear to be evolutionary young and could represent a major pool for function

SUBMITTER: Fesenko I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8501992 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature