Mohanty Vakul, Gökmen-Polar Yesim, Badve Sunil, Janga Sarath Chandra
Brief Funct Genomics. 2015 Mar;14(2):115-29. doi: 10.1093/bfgp/elu034. Epub 2014 Sep 11.
Most of the mammalian genome including a large fraction of the non-protein coding transcripts has been shown to be transcribed. Studies related to these non-coding RNA molecules have predominantly focused on smaller molecules like microRNAs. In contrast, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have long been considered to be transcriptional noise. Accumulating evidence suggests that lncRNAs are involved in key cellular and developmental processes. Several critical questions regarding functions and properties of lncRNAs and their circular forms remain to be answered. Increasing evidence from high-throughput sequencing screens also suggests the involvement of lncRNAs in diseases such as cancer, although the underlying mechanisms still need to be elucidated. Here, we discuss the current state of research in the field of lncRNAs, questions that need to be addressed in light of recent genome-wide studies documenting the landscape of lncRNAs, their functional roles and involvement in diseases. We posit that with the availability of high-throughput data sets it is not only possible to improve methods for predicting lncRNAs but will also facilitate our ability to elucidate their functions and phenotypes by using integrative approaches.
包括大部分非蛋白质编码转录本在内的大多数哺乳动物基因组已被证明会发生转录。与这些非编码RNA分子相关的研究主要集中在小分子，如微小RNA。相比之下，长链非编码RNA（lncRNA）长期以来一直被认为是转录噪音。越来越多的证据表明，lncRNA参与关键的细胞和发育过程。关于lncRNA及其环状形式的功能和特性的几个关键问题仍有待解答。来自高通量测序筛选的越来越多的证据也表明lncRNA参与了癌症等疾病，尽管其潜在机制仍需阐明。在这里，我们讨论lncRNA领域的研究现状，鉴于最近记录lncRNA景观、其功能作用和疾病参与情况的全基因组研究而需要解决的问题。我们认为，随着高通量数据集的可得性，不仅有可能改进预测lncRNA的方法，还将有助于我们通过使用综合方法阐明其功能和表型的能力。
