Genome-Wide Screens for Expressed Hypothetical Proteins

A hypothetical protein (HP) is defined as a protein that is predicted to be expressed from an open reading frame, but for which there is no experimental evidence of translation. HPs constitute a substantial fraction of proteomes of human as well as of other organisms. With the general belief that the majority of HPs are the product of pseudogenes, it is essential to have a tool with the ability of pinpointing the minority of HPs with a high probability of being expressed.