Pisignano Giuseppina, Ladomery Michael
Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, UK.
Faculty of Health and Applied Sciences, University of the West of England, Coldharbour Lane, Frenchay, Bristol BS16 1QY, UK.
Noncoding RNA. 2021 Mar 11;7(1):21. doi: 10.3390/ncrna7010021.
Alternative splicing is a highly fine-tuned regulated process and one of the main drivers of proteomic diversity across eukaryotes. The vast majority of human multi-exon genes is alternatively spliced in a cell type- and tissue-specific manner, and defects in alternative splicing can dramatically alter RNA and protein functions and lead to disease. The eukaryotic genome is also intensively transcribed into long and short non-coding RNAs which account for up to 90% of the entire transcriptome. Over the years, lncRNAs have received considerable attention as important players in the regulation of cellular processes including alternative splicing. In this review, we focus on recent discoveries that show how lncRNAs contribute significantly to the regulation of alternative splicing and explore how they are able to shape the expression of a diverse set of splice isoforms through several mechanisms. With the increasing number of lncRNAs being discovered and characterized, the contribution of lncRNAs to the regulation of alternative splicing is likely to grow significantly.
可变剪接是一个高度精细调控的过程，也是真核生物蛋白质组多样性的主要驱动因素之一。绝大多数人类多外显子基因以细胞类型和组织特异性的方式进行可变剪接，可变剪接缺陷会显著改变RNA和蛋白质功能并导致疾病。真核基因组还被大量转录成长链和短链非编码RNA，它们占整个转录组的比例高达90%。多年来，长链非编码RNA作为包括可变剪接在内的细胞过程调控中的重要参与者受到了广泛关注。在本综述中，我们聚焦于近期的发现，这些发现展示了长链非编码RNA如何对可变剪接的调控做出重大贡献，并探讨它们如何通过多种机制塑造多种剪接异构体的表达。随着越来越多的长链非编码RNA被发现和表征，长链非编码RNA对可变剪接调控的贡献可能会显著增加。
