Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Lee, Hyunmin
• Zhang, Zhaolei
• Krause, Henry M.

Titel

Long Noncoding RNAs and Repetitive Elements: Junk or Intimate Evolutionary Partners?

Ist Teil von

• Trends in genetics, 2019-12, Vol.35 (12), p.892-902

Ort / Verlag

England: Elsevier Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2019

Quelle

Elsevier ScienceDirect Journals Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Our recent ability to sequence entire genomes, along with all of their transcribed RNAs, has led to the surprising finding that only ∼1% of the human genome is used to encode proteins. This finding has led to vigorous debate over the functional importance of the transcribed but untranslated portions of the genome. Currently, scientists tend to assume coding genes are functional until proven not to be, while the opposite is true for noncoding genes. This review takes a new look at the evidence for and against widespread noncoding gene functionality. We focus in particular on long noncoding RNA (noncoding RNAs longer than 200 nucleotides) genes and their ‘junk’ associates, transposable elements, and satellite repeats. Taken together, the suggestion put forward is that more of this junk DNA may be functional than nonfunctional and that noncoding RNAs and transposable elements act symbiotically to drive evolution. Most lncRNA genes are expressed during spermatogenesis and are localized to many different subcellular locations.Solubility issues and alternative 3ʹ end processing have resulted in underestimates of lncRNA abundance.The diversity of known lncRNA molecular and subcellular functions is growing rapidly and may approach those of proteins.lncRNA and transposable element expression are coordinated during periods when spermatocyte heterochromatin is removed and replaced by protamines.Most lncRNAs contain transposable element sequences and many are expressed under the control of transposable element promoters.