Pervasive functional translation of noncanonical human open reading frames

Abstract

Expanding the human proteome Using mass spectrometry, ribosome profiling, and several CRISPR-based screens, Chen et al. identified hundreds of previously uncharacterized functional micropeptides in the human genome (see the Perspective by Wei and Guo). Protein translation outside of annotated open reading frames (ORFs) in messenger RNAs and within ORFs in long noncoding RNAs is pervasive. A functional screen using CRISPR-Cas9 with single-cell transcriptomics suggested critical roles for hundreds of micropeptides. Micropeptides encoded by multiple short, upstream ORFs form stable protein complexes with the downstream canonical proteins encoded on the same messenger RNAs. Science , this issue p. 1140 ; see also p. 1074