Upstream open reading frames (uORFs) are prevalent in eukaryotic mRNAs. They act as a translational control element for precisely tuning the expression of the downstream major open reading frame (mORF). uORF variation has been clearly associated with several human diseases. In contrast, natural uORF variants in plants have not ever been identified or linked with any phenotypic changes. The paucity of such evidence encouraged us to generate this database-uORFlight (http://uorflight.whu.edu.cn). It facilitates the exploration of uORF variation among different splicing models of Arabidopsis and rice genes. Most importantly, users can evaluate uORF frequency among different accessions at the population scale and find out the causal single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) or insertion/deletion (INDEL), which can be associated with phenotypic variation through database mining or simple experiments. Such information will help to make hypothesis of uORF function in plant development or adaption to changing environments on the basis of the cognate mORF function. This database also curates plant uORF relevant literature into distinct groups. To be broadly interesting, our database expands uORF annotation into more species of fungus (Botrytis cinerea and Saccharomyces cerevisiae), plant (Brassica napus, Glycine max, Gossypium raimondii, Medicago truncatula, Solanum lycopersicum, Solanum tuberosum, Triticum aestivum and Zea mays), metazoan (Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster) and vertebrate (Homo sapiens, Mus musculus and Danio rerio). Therefore, uORFlight will light up the runway toward how uORF genetic variation determines phenotypic diversity and advance our understanding of translational control mechanisms in eukaryotes.

中文翻译：

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uORFlight：真核生物中 uORF 介导的翻译调控机制的载体。


上游开放阅读框 (uORF) 在真核 mRNA 中普遍存在。它们充当翻译控制元件，用于精确调节下游主要开放阅读框（mORF）的表达。 uORF 变异已明确与多种人类疾病相关。相比之下，植物中的天然 uORF 变异尚未被鉴定或与任何表型变化相关。此类证据的缺乏鼓励我们生成这个数据库——uORFlight (http://uorflight.whu.edu.cn)。它有助于探索拟南芥和水稻基因不同剪接模型之间的uORF变异。最重要的是，用户可以在群体规模上评估不同种质之间的uORF频率，并找出因果单核苷酸多态性（SNP）或插入/删除（INDEL），这可以通过数据库挖掘或简单的实验与表型变异相关联。这些信息将有助于在同源mORF功能的基础上做出uORF在植物发育或适应变化环境中的功能假设。该数据库还将植物 uORF 相关文献分为不同的组。更有趣的是，我们的数据库将 uORF 注释扩展到更多的真菌物种（灰葡萄孢和酿酒酵母）、植物（甘蓝型油菜、大豆、雷蒙德棉、蒺藜苜蓿、番茄、马铃薯、普通小麦和玉米）、后生动物（秀丽隐杆线虫和果蝇）和脊椎动物（智人、小家鼠和斑马鱼）。因此，uORFlight 将照亮 uORF 遗传变异如何决定表型多样性的道路，并促进我们对真核生物翻译控制机制的理解。