Tuesday, 19 July 2022 10:52

Around 7,200 still unexplored human proteins Featured

An international consortium of researchers including the Max Delbrück Center (MDC) has summarized more than 7,200 largely unexplored gene segments that may encode new proteins. They are thought to have arisen phylogenetically late during primate evolution and therefore do not occur in other mammals such as mice.


For their studies, they used so-called ribosome profiling, which they applied to screen the protein-producing machinery in human cells. This method is used to determine with which part of the messenger RNA (mRNA) the ribosome interacts. In recent years, for example, some MDC researchers had already found mini proteins, so-called open reading frames (ORFs) in the human heart, however, their exact function is still unclear. It is suspected that the mini proteins could contribute to diseases. They would thus offer a new starting point for research into It is suspected that the mini proteins could contribute to diseases. They would thus offer a new starting point for research into human diseases. human diseases.

The scientists intend to integrate their data into the large human genome databases and make them available to a broad specialist audience for further research.

Original publication:
Mudge, J.M., Ruiz-Orera, J., Prensner, J.R. et al. (2022). Standardized annotation of translated open reading frames. Nat Biotechnol 40, 994-999. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-022-01369-0.

Source:
https://berlin-buch.com/de/news/mdc_unerforschte_gensegmente