Farm Animal Genetic Resources Exploration and Innovation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, College of Animal Science and Technology, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, 611130, China.
Cell Mol Biol Lett. 2021 Feb 10;26(1):4. doi: 10.1186/s11658-021-00248-x.
miRNAs are well known to be gene repressors. A newly identified class of miRNAs termed nuclear activating miRNAs (NamiRNAs), transcribed from miRNA loci that exhibit enhancer features, promote gene expression via binding to the promoter and enhancer marker regions of the target genes. Meanwhile, activated enhancers produce endogenous non-coding RNAs (named enhancer RNAs, eRNAs) to activate gene expression. During chromatin looping, transcribed eRNAs interact with NamiRNAs through enhancer-promoter interaction to perform similar functions. Here, we review the functional differences and similarities between eRNAs and NamiRNAs in myogenesis and disease. We also propose models demonstrating their mutual mechanism and function. We conclude that eRNAs are active molecules, transcriptional regulators, and partners of NamiRNAs, rather than mere RNAs produced during enhancer activation.
miRNAs 是众所周知的基因抑制剂。一类新鉴定的 miRNAs 被称为核激活 miRNAs（NamiRNAs），它们由表现出增强子特征的 miRNA 基因转录而来，通过与靶基因的启动子和增强子标记区域结合来促进基因表达。同时，激活的增强子产生内源性非编码 RNA（称为增强子 RNA，eRNAs）来激活基因表达。在染色质环化过程中，转录的 eRNAs 通过增强子-启动子相互作用与 NamiRNAs 相互作用，发挥类似的功能。在这里，我们综述了 eRNAs 和 NamiRNAs 在肌发生和疾病中的功能差异和相似性。我们还提出了模型来证明它们的相互作用机制和功能。我们得出结论，eRNAs 是活性分子、转录调节剂和 NamiRNAs 的伙伴，而不仅仅是增强子激活过程中产生的 RNA。
