Credendino Sara Carmela, Lewin Nicole, de Oliveira Miriane, Basu Swaraj, D'Andrea Barbara, Amendola Elena, Di Guida Luigi, Nardone Antonio, Sanges Remo, De Felice Mario, De Vita Gabriella
Dipartimento di Medicina Molecolare e Biotecnologie Mediche, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Via S. Pansini 5, 80131 Napoli, Italy.
Department of Internal Medicine, Botucatu School of Medicine, University of São Paulo State, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Int J Genomics. 2017;2017:9769171. doi: 10.1155/2017/9769171. Epub 2017 Sep 10.
lncRNAs are acquiring increasing relevance as regulators in a wide spectrum of biological processes. The extreme heterogeneity in the mechanisms of action of these molecules, however, makes them very difficult to study, especially regarding their molecular function. A novel lncRNA has been recently identified as the most enriched transcript in mouse developing thyroid. Due to its genomic localization antisense to the protein-encoding Klhl14 gene, we named it Klhl14-AS. In this paper, we highlight that mouse Klhl14-AS produces at least five splicing variants, some of which have not been previously described. Klhl14-AS is expressed with a peculiar pattern, characterized by diverse relative abundance of its isoforms in different mouse tissues. We examine the whole expression level of Klhl14-AS in a panel of adult mouse tissues, showing that it is expressed in the thyroid, lung, kidney, testis, ovary, brain, and spleen, although at different levels. In situ hybridization analysis reveals that, in the context of each organ, Klhl14-AS shows a cell type-specific expression. Interestingly, databases report a similar expression profile for human Klhl14-AS. Our observations suggest that this lncRNA could play cell type-specific roles in several organs and pave the way for functional characterization of this gene in appropriate biological contexts.
作为广泛生物过程中的调节因子，长链非编码RNA（lncRNAs）正变得越来越重要。然而，这些分子作用机制的极端异质性使得它们很难研究，尤其是在其分子功能方面。最近，一种新的lncRNA被鉴定为小鼠发育中的甲状腺中最丰富的转录本。由于其基因组定位与编码蛋白质的Klhl14基因反义，我们将其命名为Klhl14-AS。在本文中，我们强调小鼠Klhl14-AS至少产生五种剪接变体，其中一些以前未曾描述过。Klhl14-AS以一种特殊的模式表达，其特征是在不同小鼠组织中其异构体的相对丰度不同。我们检测了一组成年小鼠组织中Klhl14-AS的整体表达水平，结果表明它在甲状腺、肺、肾、睾丸、卵巢、脑和脾中均有表达，尽管表达水平不同。原位杂交分析表明，在每个器官中，Klhl14-AS都表现出细胞类型特异性表达。有趣的是，数据库报道人类Klhl14-AS具有相似的表达谱。我们的观察结果表明，这种lncRNA可能在多个器官中发挥细胞类型特异性作用，并为在适当的生物学背景下对该基因进行功能表征铺平道路。
