SORFs.org: A repository of small ORFs identified by ribosome profiling

Abstract

With the advent of ribosome profiling, a next generation sequencing technique providing a "snapshot" of translated mRNA in a cell, many short open reading frames (sORFs) with ribosomal activity were identified. Follow-up studies revealed the existence of functional peptides, so-called micropeptides, translated from these 'sORFs', indicating a new class of bio-active peptides. Over the last few years, several micropeptides exhibiting important cellular functions were discovered. However, ribosome occupancy does not necessarily imply an actual function of the translated peptide, leading to the development of various tools assessing the coding potential of sORFs. Here, we introduce sORFs.org (http://www.sorfs.org), a novel database for sORFs identified using ribosome profiling. Starting from ribosome profiling, sORFs.org identifies sORFs, incorporates state-of-the-art tools and metrics and stores results in a public database. Two query interfaces are provided, a default one enabling quick lookup of sORFs and a BioMart interface providing advanced query and export possibilities. At present, sORFs.org harbors 263 354 sORFs that demonstrate ribosome occupancy, originating fromthree different cell lines: HCT116 (human), E14 mESC (mouse) and S2 (fruit fly). sORFs.org aims to provide an extensive sORFs database accessible to researchers with limited bioinformatics knowledge, thus enabling easy integration into personal projects.