The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Semin Cell Dev Biol. 2011 Jun;22(4):359-65. doi: 10.1016/j.semcdb.2011.02.016. Epub 2011 Feb 17.
It is now clear that the genomes of many organisms encode thousands of large and small non-coding (nc)RNAs. However, relative to the discovery of ncRNAs the functions and mechanisms of ncRNAs remain disproportionately understood. One intriguing observation is that many ncRNAs are found to be associated with protein complexes including those involved in transcription regulation, post-transcriptional silencing, and epigentic regulation. These observations suggest that the functions and mechanisms of many of these ncRNAs may depend on their interactions with various protein complexes within the cell. In this review we discuss well known examples as well as newly emerging evidence of a widespread RNA-protein interactions in distinct biological processes in a wide range of organisms, and highlight the importance of developing new technologies to dissect these interactions. Finally, we propose that mis-regulation of ncRNAs interactions with their protein partners may contribute to human disease, and open up a novel approach to therapeutic interventions.
现在很明显，许多生物体的基因组编码了数千种大小不同的非编码（nc）RNA。然而，与 ncRNA 的发现相比，ncRNA 的功能和机制仍然被严重误解。一个有趣的观察结果是，许多 ncRNA 被发现与蛋白质复合物有关，包括那些参与转录调控、转录后沉默和表观遗传调控的复合物。这些观察结果表明，许多 ncRNA 的功能和机制可能取决于它们与细胞内各种蛋白质复合物的相互作用。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了在广泛的生物体中不同生物学过程中 RNA-蛋白质相互作用的广泛存在的已知例子以及新出现的证据，并强调了开发新技术来剖析这些相互作用的重要性。最后，我们提出 ncRNA 与其蛋白质伙伴的相互作用失调可能导致人类疾病，并为治疗干预提供了一种新方法。
