Modern genomics and transcriptomics technology have over the past decade discovered a wealth of hidden small genes containing short open reading frames (sORFs) in many prokaryotic genomes. These sORFs encode µ-proteins of < 50 amino acids in length, and are typically missed by automated gene predictions. The full repertoire and function of this cellular µ-proteome comprising perhaps hundreds of µ-proteins in any given prokaryote remains to be uncovered.

This Priority Programme aims to unravel this emerging major class of prokaryotic gene products in order to examine the full repertoire, functions and functional importance of the prokaryotic µ-proteome.