The human genome contains around 20,000 genes that hold instructions for making working proteins, as most genetic databases now indicate. However, some scientists say there might be thousands more 'dark proteins' with unknown but potentially important roles in cells. An effort announced today in Nature1 gives thousands of these molecules encoded by the human genome an official, new name ' peptideins ' and marks their inclusion in major gene and protein databases used by the life-sciences community. Researchers say the rebranding will bring much-needed attention and effort to working out what different peptideins do in cells. Some have been implicated in diseases including childhood cancers, as well as in basic cellular functions. But what most of them do is unknown, although there is some evidence that many peptideins ' previously called microproteins or non-canonical, 'dark' proteins ' are cellular by-products without a clear function. 'This is a major breakthrough,' says Christoph...
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