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文章數：74 |
 印月餐廳肉質如何？》台中公益路美食評選2026｜10間精選盤點 |
| 在地生活｜大台北 2026/04/21 11:49:35 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
身為一個熱愛美食、喜歡在城市裡挖掘驚喜的人，臺中公益路一直是我最常出沒的地方之一。這條路可說是「臺中人的美食戰場」，從精緻西餐到創意火鍋，從日式丼飯到義式早午餐，每走幾步，就會有完全不同的特色料理餐廳。 這次我特別花了一整個月，實際造訪了公益路上十間口碑不錯的餐廳。有的是網友熱推的打卡名店，也有隱藏在巷弄裡的小驚喜。我以環境氛圍、口味表現、價格CP值與再訪意願為基準，整理出這篇實測評比。希望能幫正在猶豫去哪裡吃飯的你，找到那一間「吃完會想再來」的餐廳。 評比標準與整理方向
這次我走訪的10家餐廳橫跨不同料理類型，從高質感牛排館到巷弄系早午餐，每一間都有自己獨特的風格。為了讓整體比較更客觀，我依照以下四大面向進行評比，並搭配實際用餐體驗來打分。
整體而言，我希望這份評比不只是「哪家好吃」，而是幫你在不同情境下（約會、家庭聚餐、朋友小聚、商業午餐）都能快速找到合適的選擇。畢竟，美食不只是味覺的滿足，更是一段段與朋友共享的生活記憶。 10間臺中公益路餐廳評比懶人包公益路向來是臺中人聚餐的首選地段，從火鍋、燒肉到中式料理與早午餐，每走幾步就有驚喜。以下是我實際造訪過的10間代表性餐廳清單，橫跨平價、創意、高級各路風格。
一頭牛日式燒肉｜炭香濃郁的和牛饗宴，約會聚餐首選
走在公益路上，很難不被 一頭牛日式燒肉 的木質外觀吸引。低調卻不失質感的門面，搭配昏黃燈光與暖色調的內裝，讓人一進門就感受到濃濃的日式職人氛圍。店內空間不大，但桌距規劃得宜，每桌皆設有獨立排煙設備，烤肉時完全不怕滿身油煙味。 餐點特色
一頭牛的靈魂，絕對是他們招牌的「三國和牛拼盤」。 用餐體驗整體節奏掌握得非常好。店員會在你剛想烤下一片肉時貼心遞上夾子、幫忙換烤網，讓人完全不用分心。整場用餐過程就像一場表演，從視覺、嗅覺到味覺都被滿足。 綜合評分
地址：408臺中市南屯區公益路二段162號電話：04-23206800 小結語一頭牛日式燒肉不僅是「吃肉的地方」，更像是一場五感盛宴。從進門那一刻到最後一道甜點，都能感受到他們對細節的用心。 TANG Zhan 湯棧｜文青系火鍋代表，麻香湯底與視覺美感並重
在公益路這條美食戰線上，TANG Zhan 湯棧 是讓人一眼就會想走進去的那一種。 餐點特色
湯棧最有名的當然是它的「麻香鍋」。 用餐體驗整體氛圍比一般火鍋店更有質感。 綜合評分
地址：408臺中市南屯區公益路二段248號電話：04-22580617 官網：https://www.facebook.com/TangZhan.tw/ 小結語TANG Zhan 湯棧 把傳統火鍋做出新的樣貌保留臺式鍋物的溫度，又結合現代風格與細節服務，讓吃鍋這件事變得更有品味。 如果你想找一間兼具「好吃、好拍、好放鬆」的火鍋店，湯棧會是公益路上最有風格的選擇之一。 NINI 尼尼臺中店｜明亮寬敞的義式早午餐天堂
如果說前兩間是肉食愛好者的天堂，那 NINI 尼尼臺中店 絕對是想放鬆、聊聊天的好地方。餐廳外觀以白色系與大片玻璃窗為主，陽光灑進室內，讓人一踏入就有種度假般的輕盈感。假日早午餐時段特別熱鬧，建議提早訂位。 餐點特色
NINI 的菜單融合義式與臺灣人口味，選擇多樣且份量十足。主打的 松露燉飯 濃郁卻不膩口，米芯保留微Q口感；而 香蒜海鮮義大利麵 則以新鮮白蝦、花枝與淡菜搭配微辣蒜香，口感層次豐富。 用餐體驗店內氣氛輕鬆不拘謹，無論是一個人帶電腦工作、或朋友聚餐，都能找到舒服角落。餐點上桌速度穩定，服務人員態度親切、補水與收盤都非常主動。整體節奏讓人覺得「時間變慢了」，很適合想遠離忙碌日常的人。 綜合評分
地址：40861臺中市南屯區公益路二段18號電話：04-23288498 小結語NINI 尼尼臺中店是一間能讓人放下手機、慢慢吃飯的餐廳。餐點不追求浮誇，而是以「剛剛好」的份量與風味，陪伴每個平凡午後。如果你在找一間能邊吃邊聊天、拍照也漂亮的早午餐店，NINI 會是你在公益路上最不費力的幸福選擇。 加分100%浜中特選昆布鍋物｜平價卻用心的湯頭系火鍋，家庭聚餐好選擇
在公益路這條高質感餐廳林立的戰場上，加分100%浜中特選昆布鍋物 走的是截然不同的路線。它沒有浮誇的裝潢、也沒有高價位的套餐，但靠著實在的湯頭與親切的服務，默默吸引許多回頭客。每到用餐時間，總能看到家庭或情侶三兩成群地圍著鍋邊聊天。 餐點特色
主打 北海道浜中昆布湯底，湯頭清澈卻不單薄，越煮越能喝出海藻與柴魚的自然香氣。 用餐體驗整體氛圍偏家庭取向，桌距寬敞、座位舒適，帶小孩來也不覺擁擠。店員態度親切，補湯、收盤都很勤快，給人一種「被照顧著」的安心感。 綜合評分
地址：403臺中市西區公益路288號電話：0910855180 小結語加分100%浜中特選昆布鍋物是一間「不浮誇、但會讓人想再訪」的火鍋店。它不追求豪華擺盤，而是用最簡單的湯頭與新鮮食材，傳遞出家常卻不平凡的溫度。 印月餐廳｜中式料理的藝術演繹，宴客與家庭聚會首選
說到臺中公益路的中式料理代表，印月餐廳 絕對是榜上有名。這間開業多年的餐廳以「中菜西吃」的概念聞名，把傳統中式料理以現代手法重新詮釋。從建築外觀到餐具擺設，每個細節都散發著低調的典雅氣息。 餐點特色
印月最令人印象深刻的是他們將傳統中菜融入創意手法。 用餐體驗服務方面完全對得起餐廳的高級定位。從入座、點餐到上菜節奏，都拿捏得恰如其分。每道菜都會有服務人員細心介紹食材與吃法，讓人感受到「被款待」的尊榮感。 綜合評分
地址：408臺中市南屯區公益路二段818號電話：0422511155 小結語印月餐廳是一間「不只吃飯，更像品味生活」的地方。 KoDō 和牛燒肉｜極致職人精神，專為儀式感與頂級味覺而生
若要形容 KoDō 和牛燒肉 的用餐體驗，一句話足以總結——「像在欣賞一場關於肉的表演」。 餐點特色
這裡主打 日本A5和牛冷藏肉，以「精切厚燒」的方式呈現。 用餐體驗KoDō 的最大特色是「儀式感」。 綜合評分
地址：403臺中市西區公益路260號電話：0423220312 官網：https://www.facebook.com/kodo2018/ 小結語KoDō 和牛燒肉不是日常餐廳，而是一場體驗。 永心鳳茶｜在茶香裡用餐的優雅時光，臺味早午餐的新詮釋
走進 永心鳳茶公益店，彷彿進入一間有氣質的茶館。 餐點特色
永心鳳茶的餐點結合中式靈魂與西式擺盤，無論是「炸雞腿飯」還是「紅玉紅茶拿鐵」，都能讓人感受到熟悉卻不平凡的味道。 用餐體驗店內服務人員態度溫和，對茶品介紹詳盡。上餐節奏剛好，不急不徐。 綜合評分
地址：40360臺中市西區公益路68號三樓(勤美誠品)電話：0423221118 小結語永心鳳茶讓人重新定義「臺味」。 三希樓｜老饕級江浙功夫菜，穩重又帶人情味的中式饗宴
位於公益路上的 三希樓 是許多臺中老饕的口袋名單。 餐點特色
三希樓的菜色以 江浙與港式料理 為主，兼顧傳統與現代風味。 用餐體驗三希樓的服務給人一種老派但貼心的感覺。 綜合評分
地址：408臺中市南屯區公益路二段95號電話：0423202322 官網：https://www.sanxilou.com.tw/ 小結語三希樓是一間「吃得出功夫」的餐廳。 一笈壽司｜低調奢華的無菜單日料，職人手藝詮釋旬味極致
在熱鬧的公益路上，一笈壽司 低調得幾乎不顯眼。 餐點特色
一笈壽司採 Omakase（無菜單料理） 形式，每一餐都由主廚根據當日食材設計。 用餐體驗整場用餐約90分鐘，節奏緩慢但沉穩。 綜合評分
地址：408臺中市南屯區公益路二段25號電話：0423206368 官網：https://www.facebook.com/YIJI.sushi/ 小結語一笈壽司是一間真正讓人「放慢呼吸」的餐廳。 茶六燒肉堂｜人氣爆棚的和牛燒肉聖地，肉香與幸福感同時滿分
若要票選公益路上「最難訂位」的餐廳，茶六燒肉堂 絕對名列前茅。 餐點特色
茶六主打 和牛燒肉套餐，價格約落在 $700–$1000 間，份量與品質兼具。 用餐體驗茶六的服務效率相當高。店員親切、換網勤快、補水速度快，整場用餐流程流暢無壓力。 綜合評分
地址：403臺中市西區公益路268號電話：0423281167 官網：https://inline.app/booking/-L93VSXuz8o86ahWDRg0:inline-live-karuizawa/-LUYUEIOYwa7GCUpAFWA 小結語茶六燒肉堂用「穩定品質＋輕奢氛圍」抓住了臺中年輕族群的心。 吃完10家公益路餐廳後的心得與結語吃完這十家餐廳後，臺中公益路不只是一條美食街，而是一段生活風景線。 有的餐廳講究細膩與儀式感，像 一頭牛日式燒肉 與 一笈壽司，讓人感受到食材最純粹的美好 有的則以親切與溫度打動人心，像 加分昆布鍋物、永心鳳茶，讓人明白吃飯不只是為了飽足，而是一種被照顧的幸福。 而像茶六燒肉堂、TANG Zhan 湯棧 這類人氣名店，則用穩定的品質與熱絡的氛圍，成為許多臺中人心中「想吃肉就去那裡」的代名詞。 這十家店，構成了公益路最動人的縮影 有華麗的，也有溫柔的；有傳統的，也有創新的。 每一家都在自己的風格裡發光，讓人吃到的不只是料理，而是一種生活的溫度與節奏。 對我而言，這不僅是一場美食旅程，更是一趟關於「臺中味道」的回憶之旅。 FAQ：關於臺中公益路美食常見問題Q1：公益路哪一區的餐廳最集中？ Q2：需要提前訂位嗎？ 最後的話若要用一句話形容這趟美食之旅，我會說： 加分100%浜中特選昆布鍋物飲料值得加點嗎？ 如果你也和我一樣喜歡用味蕾探索一座城市，那就把這篇公益路美食攻略收藏起來吧。一頭牛日式燒肉春酒菜色豐富嗎？ 無論是約會、慶生、家庭聚餐，或只是想犒賞一下辛苦的自己——這條路上永遠會有一間剛剛好的餐廳在等你。加分100%浜中特選昆布鍋物適合聚餐嗎？ 下一餐，不妨從這10家開始。TANG Zhan 湯棧整體值得推薦嗎？ 打開手機、約上朋友，讓公益路成為你生活裡最容易抵達的小確幸。三希樓婚前派對適合嗎？ 如果你有私心愛店，也歡迎留言分享，永心鳳茶單點比較好嗎？ 你的推薦，可能讓我下一趟美食旅程變得更精彩。一笈壽司甜點好吃嗎？ Recent research led by Julia Notar at Duke University reveals that brittle stars, despite lacking brains, can learn through experience. These marine creatures, related to starfish, use their nerve cords to learn by association, a concept demonstrated in classical conditioning. Brainless brittle stars are capable of learning through experience, as demonstrated in new research. They exhibit classical conditioning by associating darkness with feeding, a significant discovery in understanding learning processes in brainless marine creatures. We humans are fixated on big brains as a proxy for smarts. But headless animals called brittle stars have no brains at all and still manage to learn through experience, new research reveals. Relatives of starfish, brittle stars spend most of their time hiding under rocks and crevices in the ocean or burrowing in the sand. These shy marine creatures have no brain to speak of — just nerve cords running down each of their five wiggly arms, which join to form a nerve ring near their mouth. “There’s no processing center,” said lead author Julia Notar, who did the research as part of her biology Ph.D. in professor Sönke Johnsen’s lab at Duke University. “Each of the nerve cords can act independently,” Notar said. “It’s like instead of a boss, there’s a committee.” In a series of experiments, brittle stars learned that “lights out” was a dinner bell call to come for dinner. Credit: Julia Notar Unraveling Learning in Brainless Marine Creatures In the case of brittle stars, that seems to be enough to learn by association, Notar, Johnsen, and former Duke undergraduate Madeline Go report in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. This type of learning involves associating different stimuli via a process called classical conditioning. A famous example is Pavlov’s dog experiments, which showed that dogs repeatedly fed at the ringing of a bell would eventually start drooling at the mere sound of a bell, even when no food was around. Humans do this all the time. If you hear the “ding” of a smartphone over and over again with each new alert, eventually the sound starts to have a special meaning. Just hearing someone’s phone ping or buzz with the same chime as yours is enough to make you reflexively reach for your own phone in anticipation of the next text, email, or Instagram post. Classical conditioning has been demonstrated in a handful of previous studies in starfish. But most echinoderms — a group of some 7,000 species that includes brittle stars and similarly brainless starfish, sea urchins and sea cucumbers — have not been tested. To find out if brittle stars are capable of learning, the researchers put 16 black brittle stars (Ophiocoma echinata) in individual water tanks and used a video camera to record their behavior. This time-lapse video shows a classical conditioning experiment Duke researchers conducted to see if brittle stars – which don’t have brains – could learn. Every time the lights went dim, the researchers put a pipette with a morsel of shrimp in the animals’ tanks. Over time the animals learned that “lights out” was a dinner bell call to come for dinner. Half the brittle stars were trained by dimming the lights for 30 minutes whenever the animals were fed. Every time the lights went out, the researchers would put a morsel of shrimp — “which they love” — in the tanks, placed just out of reach. The other half got just as much shrimp and also experienced a 30-minute dark period, but never at the same time — the animals were fed under lit conditions. Whether it was light or dark, the animals spent most of their time hiding behind the filters in their tanks; only coming out at mealtime. But only the trained brittle stars learned to associate darkness with food. Early in the 10-month-long experiment, the animals stayed hidden when the lights went out. But over time, the animals made such a connection between the darkness and mealtime that they reacted as if food was on its way and crept out of hiding whenever the lights went out, even before any food was put in the tanks. These brittle stars had learned a new association: lights out meant that food was likely to show up. They didn’t need to smell or taste the shrimp to react. Just sensing the lights go dim was enough to make them come when called for dinner. Discovering Learning and Memory in Echinoderms They still remembered the lesson even after a 13-day ‘break’ without training, i.e., dimming the lights over and over again without feeding them. Notar said the results are “exciting” because “classical conditioning hasn’t really been shown definitively in this group of animals before.” “Knowing that brittle stars can learn means they’re not just robotic scavengers like little Roombas cleaning up the ocean floor,” Notar said. “They’re potentially able to expect and avoid predators or anticipate food because they’re learning about their environment.” As a next step, Notar hopes to start to tease apart how they manage to learn and remember using a nervous system that is so different from our own. “People ask me all the time, ‘how do they do it?’” Notar said. “We don’t know yet. But I hope to have more answers in a few years.” Reference: “Learning without a brain: classical conditioning in the ophiuroid Ophiocoma echinata” by Julia C. Notar, Madeline C. Go and Sönke Johnsen, 21 November 2023, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. DOI: 10.1007/s00265-023-03402-x This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Department of Defense through the National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program, the Duke Nicholas School Rachel Carson Scholars program and the Duke Biology Department. A new study proposes a hypothesis called “Cytoelectric Coupling,” arguing that the brain’s electrical fields, created by neural network activity, can influence the physical configuration of neurons’ sub-cellular components to optimize network stability and efficiency. The research, conducted by scientists from MIT, City University of London, and Johns Hopkins University, builds upon earlier studies that showed how rhythmic electrical activity or ‘brain waves’ in neural networks and the influence of electric fields at the molecular level can coordinate and adjust the brain’s functions, facilitating flexible cognition. The Cytoelectric Coupling hypothesis suggests brain waves shape neural structures, optimizing cognition and memory through electric field interactions. Brain waves act as carriers of information. A recently proposed “Cytoelectric Coupling” hypothesis suggests that these wavering electric fields contribute to the optimization of the brain network’s efficiency and robustness. They do this by influencing the physical configuration of the brain’s molecular framework. In order to carry out its multifaceted functions, which include thought, the brain operates on various levels. Information like objectives or visuals is depicted through synchronized electrical activity among neuronal networks. Simultaneously, a combination of proteins and other biochemicals within and surrounding each neuron physically execute the mechanics required for participation in these networks. A new paper by researchers at MIT, City University of London, and Johns Hopkins University posits that the electrical fields of the network influence the physical configuration of neurons’ sub-cellular components to optimize network stability and efficiency, a hypothesis the authors call “Cytoelectric Coupling.” Earl K. Miller delivers a talk on his recent work at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. Credit: MIT Picower Institute “The information the brain is processing has a role in fine-tuning the network down to the molecular level,” said Earl K. Miller, Picower Professor in The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT, who co-authored the paper in Progress in Neurobiology with Associate Professor Dimitris Pinotsis of MIT and City —University of London, and Professor Gene Fridman of Johns Hopkins. “The brain adapts to a changing world,” Pinotsis said. “Its proteins and molecules change too. They can have electric charges and need to catch up with neurons that process, store, and transmit information using electric signals. Interacting with the neurons’ electric fields seems necessary.” Thinking in Fields A major focus of Miller’s lab is studying how higher-level cognitive functions such as working memory can rapidly, flexibly, and yet reliably emerge from the activity of millions of individual neurons. Neurons are capable of dynamically forming circuits by creating and removing connections, called synapses, as well as strengthening or weakening those junctions. But, that merely forms a “roadmap” around which information could flow, Miller said. The specific neural circuits that collectively represent one thought or another, Miller has found, are coordinated by rhythmic activity, more colloquially known as “brain waves” of different frequencies. Fast “gamma” rhythms help transmit images from our vision (e.g. a muffin), while slower “beta” waves might carry our deeper thoughts about that image, (e.g. “too many calories”). Properly timed, bursts of these waves can carry predictions, enable writing in, holding onto, and reading out information in working memory, Miller’s lab has shown. They break down when working memory does, too. The lab has reported evidence that the brain might distinctly manipulate rhythms in specific physical locations to further organize neurons for flexible cognition, a concept called “Spatial Computing.” Other recent work from the lab has shown that while the participation of individual neurons within networks may be fickle and unreliable, the information carried by the networks they are part of is stably represented by the overall electric fields generated by their collective activity. Cytoelectric Coupling In the new study, the authors combine this model of rhythmic electrical activity coordinating neural networks with other lines of evidence that electrical fields can influence neurons at the molecular level. Researchers, for example, have studied ephaptic coupling, in which neurons influence each other’s electrical properties via the proximity of their membranes, rather than solely relying on electrochemical exchanges across synapses. This electrical cross-talk can affect neural functions including when and whether they spike to relay electrical signals to other neurons in a circuit. Miller, Pinotsis, and Fridman also cite research showing other electrical influences on cells and their components including how neural development is guided by fields and that microtubules can be aligned by them. If the brain carries information in electric fields and those electric fields are capable of configuring neurons and other elements in the brain that form a network, then the brain is likely to use this capability. The brain can use fields to ensure the network does what it is supposed to do, the authors suggest. To put it (loosely) in couch potato terms, the success of a television network isn’t just its ability to transmit a clear signal to millions of homes. What’s also important is the details as fine as the way each viewer household arranges its TV, sound system, and living room furniture to maximize the experience. Both in this metaphor and in the brain, Miller said, the presence of the network motivates the individual participants to configure their own infrastructure to participate optimally. “Cytoelectric Coupling connects information at the meso‐ and macroscopic level down to the microscopic level of proteins that are the molecular basis of memory,” the authors wrote in the paper. The article lays out the logic inspiring Cytoelectic Coupling. “We’re offering a hypothesis that anybody can test,” Miller said. Reference: “Cytoelectric coupling: Electric fields sculpt neural activity and “tune” the brain’s infrastructure” by Dimitris A. Pinotsis, Gene Fridman and Earl K. Miller, 18 May 2023, Progress in Neurobiology. DOI: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2023.102465 The study was funded by the United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI), the U.S. Office of Naval Research, The JPB Foundation, and The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. The microprotein in the mitochondria (green) and in the nucleus (blue) was overexpressed in human cells. The yellow and pink areas show that the signal of the microprotein overlaps with the mitochondrial and nuclear signals. Credit: Clara Sandmann, Max Delbrück Center A new study has overturned the notion that microproteins, small proteins previously deemed unimportant, play no significant role in human cellular functions. The research, led by Professor Norbert Hübner and Dr. Sebastiaan van Heesch, has shown that these proteins, primarily found in humans, interact with larger, older proteins and play a key role in evolutionary development. The research also unveiled the smallest human proteins known, with potential implications for diseases like cardiovascular disease and cancer. Every biologist knows that small structures can sometimes have a big impact: Millions of signaling molecules, hormones, and other biomolecules are bustling around in our cells and tissues, playing a leading role in many of the key processes occurring in our bodies. Yet despite this knowledge, biologists and physicians long ignored a particular class of proteins – their assumption being that because the proteins were so small and only found in primates, they were insignificant and functionless. The discoveries made by Professor Norbert Hübner at the Max Delbrück Center and Dr. Sebastiaan van Heesch at the Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology in the Netherlands changed this view a few years ago: “We were the first to prove the existence of thousands of new microproteins in human organs,” says Hübner. In a paper that was recently published in the journal Molecular Cell, the team led by Hübner and van Heesch now describe how they systematically studied these miniproteins, and what they learned from them: “We were able to show which genome sequences the proteins are encoded in, and when DNA mutations occurred in their evolution,” explains Dr. Jorge Ruiz-Orera, an evolutionary biologist in Hübner’s lab and one of the paper’s three lead authors, who work at the Max Delbrück Center and the German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK). Ruiz-Orera’s bioinformatic gene analyses revealed that most human microproteins developed millions of years later in the evolutionary process than the larger proteins currently known to scientists. Yet the huge age gap doesn’t appear to prevent the proteins from “talking” to each other. “Our lab experiments showed that the young and old proteins can bind to each other – and in doing so possibly influence each other,” says lead author Dr. Jana Schulz, a researcher in Hübner’s team and at the DZHK. She, therefore, suspects that, contrary to long-held assumptions, the microproteins play a key role in a variety of cellular functions. The young proteins might also be heavily involved in evolutionary development thanks to comparatively rapid “innovations and adaptations.” “It’s possible that evolution is more dynamic than previously thought,” says van Heesch. Proteins Only Found in Humans The researchers were surprised to find that the vastly younger microproteins could interact with the much older generation. This observation came from experiments performed using a biotechnical screening method developed at the Max Delbrück Center in 2017. In collaboration with Dr. Philipp Mertins and the Proteomics Platform, which the Max Delbrück Center operates jointly with the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH), the miniproteins were synthesized on a membrane and then incubated with a solution containing most of the proteins known to exist in a human cell. Sophisticated experimental and computer-aided analyses then allowed the researchers to identify individual binding pairs. “If a microprotein binds to another protein, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will influence the workings of the other protein or the processes that the protein is involved in,” says Schulz. However, the ability to bind does suggest the proteins might influence each other’s functioning. Initial cellular experiments conducted at the Max Delbrück Center in collaboration with Professors Michael Gotthardt and Thomas Willnow confirm this assumption. This leads Ruiz-Orera to suspect that the microproteins “could influence cellular processes that are millions of years older than they are, because some old proteins were present in the very earliest life forms.” Unlike the known, old proteins that are encoded in our genome, most microproteins emerged more or less “out of nowhere – in other words, out of DNA regions that weren’t previously tasked with producing proteins,” says Ruiz-Orera. Microproteins, therefore, didn’t take the “conventional” and much easier route of being copied and derived from existing versions. And because these small proteins only emerged during human evolution, they are missing from the cells of most other animals, such as mice, fish and birds. These animals, however, have been found to possess their own collection of young, small proteins. The Smallest Proteins So Far During their work, the researchers also discovered the smallest human proteins identified to date: “We found over 200 super-small proteins, all of which are smaller than 16 amino acids,” says Dr. Clara Sandmann, the study’s third lead author. Amino acids are the sole building blocks of proteins. Sandmann says this raises the question of how small a protein can be – or rather, how big it must be to be able to function. Usually, proteins consist of several hundred amino acids. The small proteins that were already known to scientists are known as peptides and function as hormones or signal molecules. They are formed when they split off from larger precursor proteins. “Our work now shows that peptides of a similar size can develop in a different way,” says Sandmann. These smallest-of-the-small proteins can also bind very specifically to larger proteins – but it remains unclear whether they can become hormones or similar: “We don’t yet know what most of these microproteins do in our body,” says Sandmann. Yet the study does provide an inkling of what the molecules are capable of: “These initial findings open up numerous new research opportunities,” says van Heesch. Clearly, the microproteins are much too important for researchers to keep ignoring them. Van Heesch says the biomolecular and medical research communities are very enthusiastic about these new findings. One conceivable scenario would be “that these microproteins are involved in cardiovascular disease and cancer, and could therefore be used as new targets for diagnostics and therapies,” says Hübner. Several U.S. biotech companies are already doing research in this direction. And the team behind the current paper also has big plans: Their study investigated 281 microproteins, but the aim now is to expand the experiments to include many more of the 7,000 recently cataloged microproteins – in the hope that this will reveal many as-yet-undiscovered functions. Reference: “Evolutionary origins and interactomes of human, young microproteins and small peptides translated from short open reading frames” by Clara-L. Sandmann, Jana F. Schulz, Jorge Ruiz-Orera, Marieluise Kirchner, Matthias Ziehm, Eleonora Adami, Maike Marczenke, Annabel Christ, Nina Liebe, Johannes Greiner, Aaron Schoenenberger, Michael B. Muecke, Ning Liang, Robert L. Moritz, Zhi Sun, Eric W. Deutsch, Michael Gotthardt, Jonathan M. Mudge, John R. Prensner, Thomas E. Willnow, Philipp Mertins, Sebastiaan van Heesch and Norbert Hubner, 17 February 2023, Molecular Cell. DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2023.01.023 RRG455KLJIEVEWWF |
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