Small Proteins; Big Questions

Overview

Journal J Bacteriol

Publisher American Society for Microbiology

Specialty Microbiology

Date 2021 Jul 26

PMID 34309401

Citations 32

Authors

Todd Gray

Gisela Storz

Kai Papenfort

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

In recent years, there has been increased appreciation that a whole category of proteins, small proteins of around 50 amino acids or fewer in length, has been missed by annotation as well as by genetic and biochemical assays. With the increased recognition that small proteins are stable within cells and have regulatory functions, there has been intensified study of these proteins. As a result, important questions about small proteins in bacteria and archaea are coming to the fore. Here, we give an overview of these questions, the initial answers, and the approaches needed to address these questions more fully. More detailed discussions of how small proteins can be identified by ribosome profiling and mass spectrometry approaches are provided by two accompanying reviews (N. Vazquez-Laslop, C. M. Sharma, A. S. Mankin, and A. R. Buskirk, J Bacteriol 204:e00294-21, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1128/JB.00294-21; C. H. Ahrens, J. T. Wade, M. M. Champion, and J. D. Langer, J Bacteriol 204:e00353-21, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1128/JB.00353-21). We are excited by the prospects of new insights and possible therapeutic approaches coming from this emerging field.

Citing Articles

The hidden bacterial microproteome.

Fesenko I, Sahakyan H, Dhyani R, Shabalina S, Storz G, Koonin E Mol Cell. 2025; 85(5):1024-1041.e6.

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sORFdb - a database for sORFs, small proteins, and small protein families in bacteria.

Hahnfeld J, Schwengers O, Jelonek L, Diedrich S, Cemic F, Goesmann A BMC Genomics. 2025; 26(1):110.

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Functional characterization of the DUF1127-containing small protein YjiS of Typhimurium.

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TSS-Captur: a user-friendly pipeline for characterizing unclassified RNA transcripts.

Witte Paz M, Vogel T, Nieselt K NAR Genom Bioinform. 2024; 6(4):lqae168.

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Comprehensive Genomic and Evolutionary Analysis of Biofilm Matrix Clusters and Proteins in the Genus.

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