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Regulatory non-coding RNAs: revolutionizing the RNA world

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Abstract

The majority of the genomic DNA sequence in mammalian and other higher organisms can be transcribed into abundant functional RNA transcripts, especially regulatory non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) that are expressed in a developmentally and species-specific regulated manner. Here, we review various regulatory non-coding RNAs, including regulatory small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), and summarize two and eight kinds of distinct modes of action for sncRNAs and lncRNAs respectively, by which functional ncRNAs mediate the regulation of intracellular events.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by Ministry of Science and Technology of China through Grant No. 2012CB932503 and 2011CB933100, National Natural Science Foundation of China through Grant No. 91029705, 81172864 and 81272317; Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin through Grant No. 12JCZDJC23500.

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Correspondence to Rongxin Zhang.

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Huang, B., Zhang, R. Regulatory non-coding RNAs: revolutionizing the RNA world. Mol Biol Rep 41, 3915–3923 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-014-3259-6

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