Tag: Microproteins

While there is no strict universal definition, many researchers consider a protein with fewer than 100 amino acids to be a small protein. These tiny biomolecules have long been overlooked in genetic and biochemical studies due to their diminutive size, but recent advances have revealed they play crucial roles in cellular processes.

Functional proteins encoded by short open reading frames (sORFs) have been largely overlooked in genomics until recently, a scientific blind spot now recognized as microproteins. Understanding the disparity between these tiny regulators and their larger, more well-known counterparts is key to comprehending complex biological processes.

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.