Novel classes of non-coding RNAs and cancer
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2012 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Journal of Translational Medicine |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | http://www.translational-medicine.com/content/pdf/1479-5876-10-103.pdf |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1479-5876-10-103 |
| Field | Oncology and hematology |
| Keywords | non-coding RNAs; microRNAs; siRNAs; piRNAs; lncRNAs; cancer |
| Description | For the many years, the central dogma of molecular biology has been that RNA functions mainly as an informational intermediate between a DNA sequence and its encoded protein. But one of the great surprises of modern biology was the discovery that protein-coding genes represent less than 2% of the total genome sequence, and subsequently the fact that at least 90% of the human genome is actively transcribed.Thus, the human transcriptome was found to be more complex than a collection of protein-coding genes and their splice variants. Although initially argued to be spurious transcriptional noise or accumulated evolutionary debris arising from the early assembly of genes and/or the insertion of mobile genetic elements, recent evidence suggests that the non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) may play major biological roles in cellular development, physiology and pathologies, including cancer. |
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