title: Regulatory roles of Alu transcript on gene expression.
abstract: Alu element is the most successful transposon and it maintains a high level of content in primate genome. However, despite the fact that the expression level of independent Alu element is rather low under common condition, an increasing number of the observations for the Alu transcripts in cells and tissues have been reported recently. Alu transcripts play key roles in the network of gene expression regulation. The main functions of Alu transcript focus on gene regulation both at transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels. This review summarizes major functions of Alu transcripts on gene expression and highlights molecular mechanisms dependent on conserved sequence or secondary structure in order to unravel a relative ubiquitous way that Alu transcript uses to affect the whole genome.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Fully Human Antibody Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. Electronic address: yblhzl@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, The Second Clinical Medical college (Shenzhen People׳s Hospital), Jinan University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Ju-Gao
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Fully Human Antibody Engineering, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. Electronic address: zhaoqi@alumni.cuhk.net.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D020087:Alu Elements; D000818:Animals; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D020871:RNA Stability; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
keywords: Alu element; Double stranded RNA; Gene expression; IRAlus; MicroRNA; Noncoding RNA