Cancer Biology and Epigenomics Program, Children's Memorial Research Center and Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA.
Brief Funct Genomics. 2011 Sep;10(5):316-9. doi: 10.1093/bfgp/elq029. Epub 2010 Dec 22.
Despite a considerable amount of effort by different groups to evaluate the genetic traits associated with complex diseases by genome-wide association studies (GWAS), just a few regions, mainly linked to protein-coding genes, were identified. Recently, studies from different groups have implicated new classes of long non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) to important molecular mechanisms. Additionally, high-throughput transcriptome analyses of different cell types have shown that an unexpected amount of genomic DNA is transcribed. I am writing to propose that the majority of the regions that do not clearly correspond to a 'gene' controlling certain traits might be ncRNAs or other regulatory transcripts that are still unknown. These regions will need to be carefully examined in the future.
尽管不同团队已经付出了相当多的努力，通过全基因组关联研究（GWAS）来评估与复杂疾病相关的遗传特征，但只鉴定出了少数几个主要与蛋白质编码基因相关的区域。最近，来自不同团队的研究表明，新的一类长非编码 RNA（ncRNA）与重要的分子机制有关。此外，对不同细胞类型的高通量转录组分析表明，有相当数量的基因组 DNA 被转录。我写信是想提议，大多数与控制某些特征的“基因”不明确对应的区域可能是 ncRNA 或其他尚未可知的调控转录本。这些区域在未来需要仔细检查。
