small ORFs: A new class of essential genes for development

• Main Authors: João Paulo Albuquerque, Vitória Tobias-Santos, Aline Cáceres Rodrigues, Flávia Borges Mury, Rodrigo Nunes da Fonseca
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Genética 2015-09-01
• Series: Genetics and Molecular Biology
• Subjects: Tribolium; mlpt; pri; tarsal-less; Drosophila
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1415-47572015000300278&lng=en&tlng=en

Genes that contain small open reading frames (smORFs) constitute a new group of eukaryotic genes and are expected to represent 5% of the Drosophila melanogaster transcribed genes. In this review we provide a historical perspective of their recent discovery, describe their general mechanism and discuss the importance of smORFs for future genomic and transcriptomic studies. Finally, we discuss the biological role of the most studied smORF so far, the Mlpt/Pri/Tal gene in arthropods. The pleiotropic action of Mlpt/Pri/Tal in D. melanogaster suggests a complex evolutionary scenario that can be used to understand the origins, evolution and integration of smORFs into complex gene regulatory networks.