Pri sORF peptides induce selective proteasome-mediated protein processing

Abstract

Small peptide regulates protein activity Coding and noncoding RNAs can produce peptides from small open reading frames (smORFs), with a variety of mostly unknown functions. Using a genome-wide screen, Zanet et al. show that Polished rice (Pri) smORF peptides control fruit fly development by binding to an E3 ubiquitin ligase. This changes the ligase's selectivity and triggers proteasome-dependent maturation of the developmental transcription factor Shavenbaby. Other smORF peptides may act by a similar mechanism to regulate protein activity. Science , this issue p. 1356