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Clustering according to sequence-structure similarity has now become a generally accepted scheme for ncRNA annotation. Its application to complete genomic sequences as well as whole transcriptomes is therefore desirable but hindered by extremely high computational costs. Now, researchers at University of Freiburg, Germany have developed a novel linear-time, alignment-free method for comparing and clustering RNAs according to sequence and structure. ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (February 4, 2013) – Whitehead Institute researchers have determined that DNA transcription, the process that produces messenger RNA (mRNA) templates used in protein production, also runs in the opposite direction along the DNA to create corresponding long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs). Moreover, the mRNAs and lncRNAs are transcribed coordinately as stem cells differentiate into other cell types. This surprising ...

Researchers at The Ohio State University describe a unique, long, intergenic, noncoding RNA gene (lincRNA) named Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma Susceptibility Candidate 3 (PTCSC3) located 3.2 kb downstream of rs944289 at 14q.13.3 and the expression of which is strictly thyroid specific. By quantitative PCR, PTCSC3 expression was strongly down-regulated (P = 2.84 × 10(-14)) in thyroid tumor tissue of 46 PTC ...

Recent studies have demonstrated the importance of non-protein coding part of human genome in carcinogenesis and metastasis. Among numerous kinds of non-protein coding RNAs, long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play a key regulatory role in cancer biology. LncRNAs are dysregulated in different kinds of cancer and the expression levels of certain lncRNAs are associated with recurrence, metastasis, and prognosis of cancer. ...