近日,，由中國(guó)科學(xué)院北京基因組研究所于軍研究員和肖景發(fā)副研究員及其團(tuán)隊(duì)參與完成的國(guó)家自然基金和國(guó)家重點(diǎn)基礎(chǔ)研究發(fā)展計(jì)劃項(xiàng)目——種屬特異性小蛋白的功能和進(jìn)化研究取得新進(jìn)展，相關(guān)研究論文被《生物化學(xué)與生物物理進(jìn)展》（PIBB）網(wǎng)絡(luò)版接收,。
小蛋白（小于個(gè)100氨基酸長(zhǎng)度的蛋白）在原核和真核生物中廣泛存在,。但由于計(jì)算生物方法和實(shí)驗(yàn)技術(shù)上存在缺陷，早期針對(duì)小蛋白的研究?jī)H僅局限在一些小蛋白家族的功能分析上,，并沒(méi)有跨真核物種的大規(guī)模組學(xué)分析來(lái)揭示小蛋白的功能和進(jìn)化特征,。基因組所較早地開(kāi)展了針對(duì)小蛋白的研究工作，公布了8種真核生物小蛋白功能和進(jìn)化方面的研究成果,。
該研究團(tuán)隊(duì)對(duì)這8種真核生物的蛋白和潛在的開(kāi)放閱讀框的基因進(jìn)行全基因組尺度的計(jì)算分析,，長(zhǎng)度小于100氨基酸的蛋白按照序列保守性劃分成三類(lèi)（分別是普遍存在的小蛋白,、只存在于脊椎動(dòng)物的小蛋白和只存在于哺乳動(dòng)物的小蛋白）,，余下的是種屬特異性小蛋白,。研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，這三類(lèi)保守性的蛋白只占很少一部分,，而種屬特異性小蛋白占大多數(shù),。進(jìn)一步研究人類(lèi)小蛋白在各組織中的表達(dá)情況發(fā)現(xiàn)，大多數(shù)人類(lèi)特有的小蛋白也是組織表達(dá)特異性的,，而那些古老的小蛋白的保守性較強(qiáng)而且在人體各組織中普遍表達(dá)。
因此研究人員認(rèn)為,，物種在進(jìn)化過(guò)程中,，一些真核小蛋白出現(xiàn)并在自然選擇壓力下富集，行使不同的特異性功能,。（生物谷Bioon.com）
doi:10.1016/j.cell.2011.10.017
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An integrated analysis of lineage-specific small proteins across eight eukaryotes reveals functional and evolutionary significance
ZHAO Qian; XIAO Jing-Fa; YU Jun
Small proteins (< 100 amino acids) are prevalent in all three domains of life. Earlier studies have been focusing on a limited number of small protein families in specific organisms and developing genome-wide algorithms to identify short open-reading-frames or sORFs. Here we report results of our in silico analyses on small proteins (SPs) that include both known SPs and genes with sORFs. Our SPs are defined as RefSeq proteins that shorter than 100 amino acids in length and grouped according to their sequence conservation within lineages of eukaryotes, vertebrates, and mammals. We looked into the biological roles of the grouped SPs and found that they basically perform lineage-specific functions. We also investigated tissue-specificity of human SPs and concluded that a majority of the human-specific SPs are tissue-specific and that most of the human SPs originated after the split of vertebrates and invertebrates are mostly universally expressed. In addition, our results indicated that some of the eukaryotic SPs perform lineage-specific functions and they evolve and express in certain unique ways.
