New techniques to puzzle the hidden genome: Unknown DNA sequences may be critical to human health

A large number of short RNA encoding microproteins and peptide sequences have been identified, providing new opportunities

Researchers at Duke University-National University of Singapore School of Medicine and their collaborators have discovered thousands of previously unknown DNA sequences in the human genome that encode microproteins and peptides

Computational biologist Dr Sonia Chothani explains: "Much of our understanding of the genome of the known 2% encoding protein comes from looking for long chains of protein-encoding nucleotide sequences, or long open reading frames

Scientists have been looking for smORFs and the small peptides they encode, because the destruction of smORF can cause disease

Dr Chothani added: "Many of the current datasets do not provide sufficient detail to identify smORFs

Chothani and her colleagues from Singapore, Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia proposed a way to address these challenges

Analysis of these data found nearly 8,000 smORFs

The genome is full of smORFs, and comprehensive, spatially resolved maps of human smORFs highlight overlooked functional components in the genome, identify new players in the field of health and disease, and provide a resource platform for the scientific community to accelerate discovery

Professor Patrick Casey, senior associate dean for research at Duke University-National University of Singapore, said: "As healthcare systems evolve to not only treat disease, but also prevent disease, identifying potential new targets for disease research and drug development could open the way