Technology and Development Team for Mammalian Cellular Dynamics, BioResource Center, RIKEN Tsukuba Institute, Ibaraki, 305-0074, Japan.
Front Biosci (Landmark Ed). 2012 Jan 1;17(1):300-15. doi: 10.2741/3928.
Recent transcriptomic studies revealed that extensive proportions of genomes are transcribed, despite the limited fraction of protein-coding gene loci in the whole genome. Most transcripts are considered to be 'cryptic' output of the genome because of the lack of functional evidence; however, recent progress in molecular analyses has revealed that some of these transcripts at least have functional significance. This review article examines evidence of the functional significance of endogenous cis-antisense transcripts, which are the transcriptional output from the opposite strand of annotated genes. These transcripts are one of the most common types of transcripts that do not correspond to any protein-coding loci. Historical molecular studies revealed the existence of antisense transcripts associated with dozens of gene loci, whereas more recent genome-wide studies have shown that many genes have an antisense counterpart thus stimulating investigations into the functional significance of endogenous antisense transcripts. Here, we summarize the recent progress in the genome-wide characterization of the antisense transcriptome, and discuss the biological mechanisms that underlie the regulatory machinery of eukaryotic gene expression with respect to the potential roles of endogenous cis-antisense transcripts.
最近的转录组研究表明，尽管整个基因组中只有有限的蛋白质编码基因座部分被转录，但大量的转录本被认为是基因组的“隐匿”输出，因为缺乏功能证据；然而，分子分析的最新进展揭示了其中一些转录本至少具有功能意义。本文综述了内源性顺式反义转录本的功能意义的证据，这些转录本是从注释基因的相反链转录而来的。这些转录本是最常见的不对应任何蛋白质编码基因座的转录本之一。历史分子研究揭示了与数十个基因座相关的反义转录本的存在，而最近的全基因组研究表明，许多基因都有反义对应物，这激发了对内源性反义转录本的功能意义的研究。在这里，我们总结了反义转录组的全基因组特征的最新进展，并讨论了真核基因表达调控机制的生物学机制，以及内源性顺式反义转录本的潜在作用。
