The primary determinants for successful recombinant protein expression are high expression levels of the recombinant genes, translation efficacy and post-translational modifications. Transcriptomic and proteomic tools have helped in our understanding of the molecular basis of protein expression. However, while RNA-Seq provides insight into transcription it fails to take into consideration that translational control of mRNA […]

The process of translation is characterized by variation in the local decoding rates of specific mRNA codons. There are known cases where pausing or stalling is used for regulating protein synthesis. These are frequently found in the translated ORFs in 5’UTRs whereby the paused ribosome  alters the progression of ribosomes to the CDS.  Ribosome pausing has […]

In order to maintain a healthy proteome, the ribosome must not only generate sequences of peptides in sufficient quantities to serve their biological purpose but must also ensure that these polymers correctly fold into their native structures to yield fully functional proteins. Somewhat counter-intuitively, these mutually beneficial processes of protein synthesis and folding are favoured […]

Cardiometabolic diseases, significant causal factors in heart attacks and strokes, are the leading cause of death worldwide. With the growing rates of cardiometabolic disorders in the Western world, a greater understanding of the mechanisms behind such disorders are increasingly required. While this has been an extensively researched area in recent times, much of what underlies […]

Micropeptides are peptides that are generally considered to be less than 150 amino acids in length. The identification of these short peptides has been limited by their size, abundance, and the current standard parameters for defining protein-coding regions. They are noteworthy in that the evolutionary conservation of the ORFs protein coding potential tends to be […]