Search

Translation is pervasive outside of canonical coding regions, occurring in long noncoding RNAs, canonical untranslated regions and introns 1-4 , especially in ageing 4-6 , neurodegeneration 5,7 and cancer 8-10 . Notably, the majority of tumour-specific antigens are results of noncoding translation 11-13 . Although the resulting polypeptides are often nonfunctional, translation of noncoding regions is nonetheless necessary for the birth of new coding sequences 14,15 . The mechanisms underlying the surveillance of translation in diverse noncoding regions and how escaped polypeptides evolve new functions remain unclear 10,16-19 . Functional polypeptides derived from annotated noncoding sequences often localize to membranes 20,21 . Here we integrate massively parallel analyses of more than 10,000 human genomic sequences and millions of random sequences with genome-wide CRISPR screens, accompanied by in-depth genetic and biochemical characterizations. Our results show that the intrinsic nucleotide bias in the noncoding genome and in the genetic code frequently results in polypeptides with a hydrophobic C-terminal tail, which is captured by the ribosome-associated BAG6 membrane protein triage complex for either proteasomal degradation or membrane targeting. By contrast, canonical proteins have evolved to deplete C-terminal hydrophobic residues. Our results reveal a fail-safe mechanism for the surveillance of unwanted translation from diverse noncoding regions and suggest a possible biochemical route for the preferential membrane localization of newly evolved proteins., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)