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Small and long non-coding RNAs have emerged as key regulators of gene expression through their direct and indirect actions on chromatin. This Review describes how RNAs form powerful surveillance systems that detect and silence inappropriate transcription events, and how such systems provide a memory of these events via self-reinforcing epigenetic loops.
Integrating multiple data types can be substantially more informative than analysing data sets separately, and methods to combine data sets are now emerging. This Review outlines the current approaches for data integration and the various strengths and weaknesses of these strategies. The analytical challenges that emerge with data sets of this magnitude are also described, and the authors provide their perspective on how such systems genomic analyses might develop in the future.
This Review describes our latest understanding of the range of functions of tRNAs. Emerging roles include the tight regulation of tRNA biogenesis to meet the translational needs of different cell types, cleavage and covalent modification of tRNAs in stress signalling, and diverse mechanistic links to various diseases.
Increasing evidence suggests that competition between transcripts for binding of microRNAs and RNA-binding proteins might be a fundamental principle of post-transcriptional gene regulation. The authors use a simple steady-state model to quantitatively assess competition effects under physiological conditions and review the role of endogenous 'sponges' in light of the key features that emerge.
