MOTS‑c Peptide (Mitochondrial-Derived Peptide)

It has 16 amino acids (MRWQEMGYIFYPRKLR), a molar mass of 2174.6 g/mol and CAS number 1627580-64-6; the full identifiers are in the lab sheet above. ORP supplies it as a lyophilized powder for in vitro and preclinical research only. It is not for human or animal use and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

The peptide was reported in 2015 by Lee and colleagues at the University of Southern California in Cell Metabolism. That work followed the earlier discovery of humanin, another short peptide encoded in mitochondrial DNA, and asked whether other short open reading frames in the mitochondrial genome encode signaling peptides. The study identified skeletal muscle as the apparent primary target tissue in its models and described cellular actions on the folate cycle and de novo purine biosynthesis, leading to AMPK activation, with insulin sensitivity and metabolic homeostasis examined in mouse models.

A 2018 follow-up from the same group, also in Cell Metabolism, reported that MOTS-c moves into the cell nucleus under metabolic stress such as glucose restriction, in an AMPK-dependent manner. In the nucleus it was associated with changes in a broad set of genes, including genes with antioxidant response elements, and it interacted with stress-responsive transcription factors such as NRF2 (NFE2L2). The authors presented this as evidence of mitonuclear communication: the mitochondrial genome encoding a factor that helps regulate the nuclear genome.

In 2021, a study in Nature Communications described MOTS-c as exercise-induced and examined it in young, middle-aged and old mice, looking at physical performance, nuclear genes related to metabolism and proteostasis, skeletal muscle metabolism, and how muscle precursor cells (myoblasts) adapt to metabolic stress. Across these papers MOTS-c is used as a research tool for questions about mitochondrial signaling, cellular energy sensing and metabolic adaptation in cell and animal models. These are research observations in laboratory models, not evidence of any benefit from this product.

For identity checks, researchers usually compare a sample against the published sequence and a molar mass of about 2,175 by mass spectrometry, and assess purity by HPLC. ORP's 10mg MOTS-c lot has a published third-party certificate of analysis from Freedom Diagnostics reporting 99.001% purity (reported 03/27/2026, accession 2603260290), shown on this page. Review the report against the product and lot before relying on it in your work.