Project

Micropeptides as a new class of bio-active peptides in higher eukaryotes.

Code
3E011012
Duration
01 October 2012 → 30 November 2019
Funding
Regional and community funding: Special Research Fund, Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO)
Research disciplines
  • Engineering and technology
    • Biomaterials engineering
    • Biological system engineering
    • Biomaterials engineering
    • Biomechanical engineering
    • Other (bio)medical engineering
    • Environmental engineering and biotechnology
    • Industrial biotechnology
    • Other biotechnology, bio-engineering and biosystem engineering
Keywords
micropeptide sORF bioinformatics mass spectrometry ribosome profiling
 
Project description

Micropeptides are a type of non-classical bio-active peptides, translated from short open reading frames (sORFs; <100 amino acids). Recently, such peptides were discovered in several eukaryotic organisms and more interestingly the biological function of one of them, the tarsal-less gene micropeptide, was revealed in Drosophila melanogaster. The objective is to discover new micropeptides in Drosophila melanogaster and translate this search strategy to mouse embryonic samples. This strategy combines both wet-lab (RNA-seq, ribosome profiling, and SRM mass spectrometry) and theoretical (in silico prediction) experiments.