Ruiz Orera, Jorge, 1988-Messeguer, XavierSubirana, Juan A.Albà Soler, Mar2017-06-092017-06-092014Ruiz-Orera J, Messeguer X, Subirana JA, Alba MM. Long non-coding RNAs as a source of new peptides. Elife. 2014 Sep 16;3:e03523. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.035232050-084Xhttp://hdl.handle.net/10230/32245Deep transcriptome sequencing has revealed the existence of many transcripts that lack long or conserved open reading frames (ORFs) and which have been termed long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). The vast majority of lncRNAs are lineage-specific and do not yet have a known function. In this study, we test the hypothesis that they may act as a repository for the synthesis of new peptides. We find that a large fraction of the lncRNAs expressed in cells from six different species is associated with ribosomes. The patterns of ribosome protection are consistent with the translation of short peptides. lncRNAs show similar coding potential and sequence constraints than evolutionary young protein coding sequences, indicating that they play an important role in de novo protein evolutionapplication/pdfeng© Jorge Ruiz-Orera et al. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are creditedRNA no missatgersPèptidsProteïnes -- SíntesiGenèticainfo:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.03523info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess