Emile Magny

• University of Sussex

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are transcripts longer than 200 nucleotides but lacking canonical coding sequences. Apparently unable to produce peptides, lncRNA function seems to rely only on RNA expression, sequence and structure. Here, we exhaustively detect in-vivo translation of small open reading frames (small ORFs) within lncRNAs using Ribosom...

Small Open Reading Frames (smORFs) coding for peptides of less than 100 amino-acids are an enigmatic and pervasive gene class, found in the tens of thousands in metazoan genomes. Here we reveal a short 80 amino-acid peptide (Pegasus) which enhances Wingless/Wnt1 protein short-range diffusion and signalling. During Drosophila wing development, Wingl...

Small Open Reading Frames (smORFs) coding for peptides of less than 100 amino-acids are emerging as a fundamental and pervasive gene class, found in the hundreds of thousands in metazoan genomes. Even though some of these genes are annotated in the genome, their function, if any, remains unknown. Here we characterize the function of a smORF encodin...

Hundreds, perhaps thousands of previously unidentified functional small peptides could exist in most genomes, but these sequences have been generally overlooked. The discovery of genes encoding small peptides with important functions in different organisms has ignited the interest in these sequences and led to an increasing amount of effort towards...

Translation of hundreds of small ORFs (smORFs) of less than 100 amino acids has recently been revealed in vertebrates and Drosophila. Some of these peptides have essential and conserved cellular functions. In Drosophila, we have predicted a particular smORF class encoding ~80 aa hydrophobic peptides, which may function in membranes and cell organel...

Up to 80% of myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) patients will develop cardiac abnormalities at some point during the progression of their disease. The most common of them are varying degrees of heart blockage characterized by conduction defects and supraventricular and ventricular tachycardia, resulting in a high risk of sudden cardiac death. Despite...

SmORFing for Calcium Genomes contain thousands of small open reading frames (smORFs), short DNA sequences coding for peptides of less than 100 amino acids. Magny et al. (p. 1116 , published on 22 August) describe two smORF-encoded peptides of less than 30 amino acids regulating calcium transport and, hence, regular heart contraction, in the fruit f...

Cumulative size distributions of short exonic sequences before and after tBLASTn.

Statistical analyses for the comparisons of smORF pools according to their codon length.

Excel file with the sequences of 401 smORFs representing our conservative estimate.

Fasta file with the sequences of the 401 smORFs representing our conservative estimate.

The relationship between DNA sequence and encoded information is still an unsolved puzzle. The number of protein-coding genes in higher eukaryotes identified by genome projects is lower than was expected, while a considerable amount of putatively non-coding transcription has been detected. Functional small open reading frames (smORFs) are known to...