*3.5. uORFs*

There were eight genes (67%) among ABCA genes having at least one uORF predicted by the prediction software, 16 uORFs in total. The median for the whole subgroup is 1 uORF, minimum 0 and maximum 6 (*ABCA10*). Recently, Johnstone and co-workers [34] published that the human and mouse transcriptomes had similar uORF content (49.5 and 46.1%, respectively), consistent with previous computational estimates. The above-average incidence of uORFs in the ABCA subfamily is obvious from our results. The biological significance of a majority of uORFs is probably not limited to the regulation of translation, as the uORF products—small polypeptides—can play many different roles within the metabolism of complex organisms [35].
