Gain-of-Functional Genomic Screening for Microproteins Essential for Tumorigenesis

Anni Ge; Yuan Gao; Xiaolong Yang

doi:10.1007/978-1-0716-5013-4_17

Gain-of-Functional Genomic Screening for Microproteins Essential for Tumorigenesis

Methods Mol Biol. 2026:2992:247-259. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-5013-4_17.

Authors

Anni Ge¹, Yuan Gao¹, Xiaolong Yang²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada.
² Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada. yangx@queensu.ca.

PMID: 41241911
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-5013-4_17

Abstract

Mounting studies suggest that the protein-coding potential of the human genome is underestimated, and previously unannotated open reading frames (ORFs) have been revealed with technological advances. Although the coding potential of many non-canonical ORFs (ncORFs) is now recognized, their functional prevalence remains to be characterized, partly due to the technical difficulty and labour intensity in screening numerous ncORFs at once. Here, we describe a gain-of-function genomic screen to identify functional ncORF-encoded proteins responsible for breast cancer tumorigenesis. This method is thought to improve the efficiency of characterizing previously neglected ncORFs and reveal potential targets for cancer treatment.

Keywords: Cancer biology; Functional genomic screen; Gain-of-function screen; Micropeptides; Microproteins; Tumorigenesis; ncORF; smORF.

MeSH terms

Breast Neoplasms* / genetics
Breast Neoplasms* / pathology
Carcinogenesis* / genetics
Cell Line, Tumor
Female
Genomics* / methods
Humans
Micropeptides
Open Reading Frames / genetics

Substances

Micropeptides