RNA biology program, Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
Biomolecules. 2013 Feb 4;3(1):124-42. doi: 10.3390/biom3010124.
Recent transcriptome studies suggest that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are key components of the mammalian genome, and their study has become a new frontier in biomedical research. In fact, lncRNAs in the mammalian genome were identified and studied at particular epigenetic loci, including imprinted loci and X-chromosome inactivation center, at least two decades ago-long before development of high throughput sequencing technology. Since then, researchers have found that lncRNAs play essential roles in various biological processes, mostly during development. Since much of our understanding of lncRNAs originates from our knowledge of these well-established lncRNAs, in this review we will focus on lncRNAs from the X-chromosome inactivation center and the Dlk1-Dio3 imprinted cluster as examples of lncRNA mechanisms functioning in the epigenetic regulation of mammalian genes.
最近的转录组研究表明，长非编码 RNA（lncRNA）是哺乳动物基因组的关键组成部分，它们的研究已成为生物医学研究的新前沿。事实上，至少在高通量测序技术发展之前的二十年前，哺乳动物基因组中的 lncRNA 就在特定的表观遗传位点（包括印记位点和 X 染色体失活中心）被鉴定和研究。从那时起，研究人员发现 lncRNA 在各种生物过程中发挥着重要作用，主要是在发育过程中。由于我们对 lncRNA 的大部分了解都源于我们对这些成熟 lncRNA 的了解，因此在本综述中，我们将以 X 染色体失活中心和 Dlk1-Dio3 印记簇中的 lncRNA 为例，探讨 lncRNA 在哺乳动物基因的表观遗传调控中的作用机制。
