Dykes Iain M, Emanueli Costanza
School of Clinical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS2 8HW, United Kingdom.
School of Clinical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS2 8HW, United Kingdom; National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom.
Genomics Proteomics Bioinformatics. 2017 Jun;15(3):177-186. doi: 10.1016/j.gpb.2016.12.005. Epub 2017 May 19.
Advances in genomics technology over recent years have led to the surprising discovery that the genome is far more pervasively transcribed than was previously appreciated. Much of the newly-discovered transcriptome appears to represent long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), a heterogeneous group of largely uncharacterised transcripts. Understanding the biological function of these molecules represents a major challenge and in this review we discuss some of the progress made to date. One major theme of lncRNA biology seems to be the existence of a network of interactions with microRNA (miRNA) pathways. lncRNA has been shown to act as both a source and an inhibitory regulator of miRNA. At the transcriptional level, a model is emerging whereby lncRNA bridges DNA and protein by binding to chromatin and serving as a scaffold for modifying protein complexes. Such a mechanism can bridge promoters to enhancers or enhancer-like non-coding genes by regulating chromatin looping, as well as conferring specificity on histone modifying complexes by directing them to specific loci.
近年来，基因组学技术的进步带来了一个惊人的发现：基因组的转录远比之前认为的更为普遍。许多新发现的转录组似乎代表了长链非编码RNA（lncRNA），这是一类异质性的转录本，大部分尚未得到表征。了解这些分子的生物学功能是一项重大挑战，在本综述中，我们讨论了迄今为止取得的一些进展。lncRNA生物学的一个主要主题似乎是存在与微小RNA（miRNA）通路的相互作用网络。lncRNA已被证明既可以作为miRNA的来源，也可以作为其抑制性调节因子。在转录水平上，一种模型正在形成，即lncRNA通过与染色质结合并作为修饰蛋白复合物的支架来连接DNA和蛋白质。这样的机制可以通过调节染色质环化将启动子与增强子或类似增强子的非编码基因连接起来，还可以通过将组蛋白修饰复合物引导至特定位点来赋予其特异性。
