Long non-coding RNAs and their biological roles in plants.
With the development of genomics and bioinformatics, especially the extensive applications of high-throughput sequencing technology, more transcriptional units with little or no protein-coding potential have been discovered. Such RNA molecules are called non-protein-coding RNAs (npcRNAs or ncRNAs). Among them, long npcRNAs or ncRNAs (lnpcRNAs or lncRNAs) represent diverse classes of transcripts longer than 200 nucleotides. In recent years, the lncRNAs have been considered as important regulators in many essential biological processes. In plants, although a large number of lncRNA transcripts have been predicted and identified in few species, our current knowledge of their biological functions is still limited. Here, we have summarized recent studies on their identification, characteristics, classification, bioinformatics, resources, and current exploration of their biological functions in plants.
CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics and National Center for Plant Gene Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
Xue
X
Liu
CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
Lili
L
Hao
State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics and National Center for Plant Gene Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
Dayong
D
Li
State Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics and National Center for Plant Gene Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China. Electronic address: lhzhu@genetics.ac.cn.
Lihuang
L
Zhu
CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China. Electronic address: husn@big.ac.cn.
Songnian
S
Hu
D017398:Alternative Splicing / Q000235:genetics; D019295:Computational Biology; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics*; D062085:RNA, Long Noncoding / Q000235:genetics*; D018749:RNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics*
D062085:RNA, Long Noncoding; D018749:RNA, Plant
Epigenetic; Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA); Long non-coding natural antisense transcripts (lncNATs); MicroRNA; Small RNA; Target mimicry