Origins
When was MOTS-c discovered?
MOTS-c was found somewhere nobody had thought to look for a peptide: inside a mitochondrial gene.
The short answer
| Date | 2015 |
| Who | Changhan Lee, Pinchas Cohen and colleagues |
| Where | University of Southern California |
| Origin | Found, not designed — it occurs naturally and was isolated from tissue. |
Where it came from
Mitochondria carry their own small genome, separate from the DNA in the nucleus, and it had long been treated as fully catalogued — thirteen protein-coding genes and the machinery for making them. What the USC group found in 2015 was a short open reading frame sitting inside the 12S ribosomal RNA gene, encoding a sixteen-residue peptide.
The interest was as much in the address as in the molecule. A peptide encoded in mitochondrial DNA belongs to a category that barely existed — humanin, described in 2003, was the first, and MOTS-c joined a very short list.
2015 is a firm date: a single publication, a named group, a named institution.
Why it is called that
Mitochondrial open reading frame of the twelve S rRNA type-c. An unusually literal name — it says exactly where in the genome the peptide is written.
Where it stands now
MOTS-c has not been approved as a medicine anywhere and has no international nonproprietary name.
What this page does not say
Nothing above is a statement about what MOTS-c does in a body, and none of it is guidance on use. A compound’s history is a record of laboratories and dates; it is not evidence for anything, and the fact that a programme was looking for something is not a finding that it was found.
More on MOTS-c
- MOTS-c — prices and sizes
- Buying MOTS-c in New Zealand
- What is MOTS-c?
- The MOTS-c certificate of analysis
What is MOTS-c? · The full timeline · MOTS-c — sizes and prices
