The human C-terminome

The C-termini of proteins often possess minimotifs (also known as short linear motifs). Minimotifs are 2–15 amino acids long contiguous peptide sequences with a known function in at least one protein. Minimotifs regulate cellular functions by binding to other molecules in a cell, trafficking molecules to different cellular compartments, and through post-translational modifications. The analysis of ~550,000 minimotifs from the Minimotif Miner 3.0 database revealed 3,593 minimotifs on the C-termini of human proteins. These minimotifs are encoded by 13% of human genes. We asked if the remaining 87% of the human genes also express proteins with a functionalized C-terminus. We designate this area of research as the C-terminome. Our hypothesis is that many human proteins have a functional C-terminus. To test our hypothesis, we used sequence based prediction of new functions on the C-termini of proteins. Functions were predicted for 27,546 sequences based on minimotif consensus sequences, and 867 minimotifs were...