Advances in studies on small open reading frames in plants

Small open reading frames (sORFs) can encode small peptides with lengths of about 100 amino acids or less. They exist in plant genomes but are often excluded from genome annotations. With the development of translatomics and proteomics, accumulating evidence suggests that sORFs are widely present in plant genomes and are involved in the regulation of plant growth and development. This review summarizes recent progress in sORF studies in plants, including biogenesis and classification, bioinformatic prediction methods, and biological functions, and provides a prospective outlook for future research directions.