What is a short protein? Exploring microproteins and micropeptides
                                
                                
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                                    4 min read                                
                            
                                Historically, many genome sequencing projects set an arbitrary length threshold of 100 amino acids for protein-coding genes, inadvertently overlooking a vast class of small, functional proteins. A short protein, often called a microprotein or micropeptide, is a polypeptide chain typically consisting of 100 or fewer amino acids that serves critical biological functions in organisms.