Antisense RNAs everywhere?
In recent years, systematic searches of both prokaryote and eukaryote genomes have identified a staggering number of small RNAs, the biological functions of which remain unknown. Small RNA-based regulators are well known from bacterial plasmids. They act on target RNAs by sequence complementarity; that is, they are antisense RNAs. Recent findings suggest that many of the novel orphan RNAs encoded by bacterial and eukaryotic chromosomes might also belong to a ubiquitous, heterogeneous class of antisense regulators of gene expression.
Wagner
E Gerhart H
EG
Flärdh
Klas
K
D001483:Base Sequence; D002876:Chromosomes, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D016372:RNA, Antisense / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*
D016372:RNA, Antisense