Search Results for: what percent of the human genome is non coding

Genome regions once mislabeled ‘junk’ linked to heart failure

By Julia Evangelou Strait

Large sections of the genome that were once referred to as “junk” DNA have been linked to human heart failure, according to research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

So-called junk DNA was long thought to have no important role in heredity or disease because it doesn’t code for proteins. But emerging research in recent years has revealed that many of these sections of the genome produce RNA molecules that, despite not being proteins, still have important functions in the body. RNA is a close chemical cousin to DNA.

Molecules now associated with these sections of the genome are called noncoding RNAs. They come in a variety of forms, some more widely studied than others. Of these, about 90 percent are called long noncoding RNAs, and exploration of their roles in health and disease is just beginning.

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vlincRNAs: very long intergenic non-coding RNAs

The function of the non-coding portion of the human genome remains one of the most important questions of our time. Its vast complexity is exemplified by the recent identification of an unusual and notable component of the transcriptome - very long intergenic non-coding RNAs, termed vlincRNAs.

Here a team led by researchers from the St. Laurent Institute identify 2,147 vlincRNAs covering 10 percent of our genome. They show they are present not only in cancerous cells, but also in primary cells and normal human tissues, and are controlled by canonical promoters. Furthermore, vlincRNA promoters frequently originate from within endogenous retroviral sequences. Strikingly, the number of vlincRNAs expressed from endogenous retroviral promoters strongly correlates with pluripotency or the degree of malignant transformation. These results suggest a previously unknown connection between the pluripotent state and cancer via retroviral repeat-driven expression of vlincRNAs. Finally, they show that vlincRNAs can be syntenically conserved in humans and mouse and their depletion using RNAi can cause apoptosis in cancerous cells.

  • St Laurent G 3rd, Shtokalo D, Dong B, Tackett MR, Fan X, Lazorthes S, Nicolas E, Sang N, Triche TJ, McCaffrey TA, Xiao W, Kapranov P. (2013) VlincRNAs controlled by retroviral elements are a hallmark of pluripotency and cancer. Genome Biol 14(7), R73. [abstract]

Decoding Noncoding RNA: Da Vinci Redux?

The discovery by Crick, Franklin, Watson, and Wilkins of the molecule that encodes our genetic information enabled Holley, Khorana, and Nirenberg to break the 4-letter alphabet of DNA and translate it into the language of amino acids by deciphering protein-coding RNA. Recent advances in RNA profiling have revealed that 75% of the human genome is capable of being transcribed into RNA, yet only a small percentage of transcribed RNA codes for proteins. Therefore, the next step in our quest to understand the mysteries of life is to decode the secrets hidden in nonprotein-coding RNA. (read more…)

  • Sandberg K, Samson WK, Hong J. (2013) Decoding Noncoding RNA: Da Vinci Redux? Circ Res 113(3), 240–241.

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NHGRI to Unveil Funding for Tools to Interpret Non-coding Genomic Regions

NHGRI

from GenomeWeb

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The National Human Genome Research Institute plans to launch a grant program that would fund efforts to develop innovative computational approaches for interpreting variants found in the non-protein-coding regions of the human genome.

NHGRI’s advisory board yesterday approved the program, which will provide up to $500,000 per year to each of five or six projects to create new tools that will pare down the numbers of genomic variants that are thought to be contributing to diseases or other traits.

At its tri-annual meeting yesterday, the National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research agreed that the RFA program, “Interpreting Variation in Human Non-coding Genomic Regions Using Computational Approaches,” should proceed, and the plan now is for the first RFAs to be released in August…

Cardiac development needs more than protein-coding genes

by Anne Trafton - from MIT News

Biologists find that long non-coding RNA molecules are necessary to regulate differentiation of embryonic stem cells into cardiac cells.

When the human genome was sequenced, biologists were surprised to find that very little of the genome — less than 3 percent — corresponds to protein-coding genes. What, they wondered, was all the rest of that DNA doing?

It turns out that much of it codes for genetic snippets known as long non-coding RNAs, or lncRNAs. In recent years, scientists have found that these molecules often help to regulate which genes get turned on or off inside a cell. However, little is known about the specific roles of the thousands of lncRNAs discovered so far.

In a new study, MIT biologists have identified a critical role for a lncRNA they dubbed “Braveheart.” This lncRNA appears to stimulate stem cells to transform into heart cells during mouse embryonic stem cell (ESC) differentiation; the researchers suspect that lncRNAs may control this process in humans as well. If so, learning more about lncRNAs could offer a new approach to developing regenerative drugs for patients whose hearts have been damaged by cardiovascular disease or aging.

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