The long noncoding RNA acts as an intranuclear organizing hub for pre-mRNA molecules.

Molecular mechanisms by which long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) molecules may influence cancerous condition are poorly understood. The aberrant expression of lncRNA, encoded within the drosophila gene homolog intron, is correlated with a variety of cancers, including human melanomas. We demonstrate by SHAPE-seq and dChIRP that RNA secondary structure has a core pseudoknotted domain. This lncRNA interacts with the intronic regions of six pre-mRNAs: , , , , , and , all of which have cancer-related functions. Hemizygous knockout of by CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)/Cas9 in melanoma cells significantly decreases lncRNA levels, simultaneously decreases the levels of its interacting pre-mRNA molecules, and decreases anchorage-independent growth rate of cells and the rate of in vivo tumor growth in mouse xenografts. These results provide the first demonstration of an lncRNA's three-dimensional coordinating role in facilitating cancer-related gene expression in human melanomas.