The Definition of Open Reading Frame Revisited

  • Trends Genet. 2018 Mar;34(3):167-170. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2017.12.009.
Patricia Sieber  1 ,  Matthias Platzer  2 ,  Stefan Schuster  3
Affiliations
  • 1. Department of Bioinformatics, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Ernst-Abbe-Platz 2, 07743 Jena, Germany.
  • 2. Leibniz Institute on Aging - Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI), Beutenbergstraße 11, 07745 Jena, Germany.
  • 3. Department of Bioinformatics, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Ernst-Abbe-Platz 2, 07743 Jena, Germany. Electronic address: [email protected].
PMID: 29366605 DOI: 10.1016/j.tig.2017.12.009
Abstract

The term open reading frame (ORF) is of central importance to gene finding. Surprisingly, at least three definitions are in use. We discuss several molecular biological and bioinformatics aspects, and we recommend using the definition in which an ORF is bounded by stop codons.

Keywords
definition; gene finding; open reading frame; stop codon.