Abstract Introduction lncRNAs are strands larger than 200 nucleotides that do not encode proteins. They have regulatory functions in cell proliferation, apoptosis and migration. stable over a long period may diagnostic value colorectal cancer (CRC). Their availability as effective biomarkers for CRC screening would represent substantial advance, tests could be performed with minimal risk wide a...

Post-synthetic modifications of nucleic acids have long been known to affect their functional and structural properties. For instance, numerous different chemical modifications modulate the structural organization, stability or translation efficiency of tRNAs and rRNAs. In contrast, little is known about modifications of poly(A)RNAs. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that the two well-stu...

Noncoding RNAs (ncRNA) participate in epigenetic regulation but are poorly understood. Here we characterize the transcriptional landscape of the four human HOX loci at five base pair resolution in 11 anatomic sites and identify 231 HOX ncRNAs that extend known transcribed regions by more than 30 kilobases. HOX ncRNAs are spatially expressed along developmental axes and possess unique sequence m...

We are pleased to present a series of Annotated Classics celebrating 40 years of exciting biology in the pages of Cell. This installment revisits “Functional Demarcation of Active and Silent Chromatin Domains in Human HOX Loci by Noncoding RNAs” from Howard Chang’s lab. Here, Irene Bozzoni comments on how Rinn et al. ignited our appreciation for the ability of noncoding RNAs to regulate key cel...

Hox transcript antisense intergenic RNA (HOTAIR) is a well-known long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) which participates in tumorigenesis and progress of multiple cancers. However, the associations among polymorphisms on HOTAIR, breast cancer (BC) susceptibility and clinical outcomes have remained obscure. In this case-control study, we assessed the interaction between three lncRNA HOTAIR single nucleo...

Background: Skin fibrosis is the hallmark fibrotic manifestation of systemic sclerosis (SSc). Despite a key role tissue fibroblasts, skin changes extend to keratinocyte layer, which contribute loss function. RNA seq. analysis SSc patient forearm showed that palmoplantar specific Keratin 9 (CK9) was highly expressed (1). affected shares several features with including increased layer thickness a...

It is not clear to what extent noncoding RNAs regulate the homeobox (HOX) genes that encode key regulators of development in the embryo. In this issue, Rinn et al. (2007) characterize noncoding RNAs that regulate HOX genes and discover one, HOTAIR, that unexpectedly regulates a HOX gene cluster on a different chromosome than the HOX cluster that encodes it.

Epithelial cells may respond to instructive signals and profoundly change the expression profile in a transdifferentiation process known as Epithelialto-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT). Cells undergoing EMT progressively lose cell-cell adhesion and epithelial markers (primarily the E-cadherin) and rearrange apicalbasal polarity and cytoskeleton to acquire mesenchymal markers and migratory capacity...

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are non-protein coding transcripts longer than 200 nucleotides. Aberrant expression of lncRNAs has been found associated with gastric cancer, one of the most malignant tumors. By complementary base pairing with mRNAs or forming complexes with RNA binding proteins (RBPs), some lncRNAs including GHET1, MALAT1, and TINCR may mediate mRNA stability and splicing. Other ...