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Non-coding RNA

More uses for genomic junk

Nature volume 543, pages 183–185 (2017)Cite this article

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It emerges that nascent non-coding RNAs transcribed from regulatory DNA sequences called enhancers bind to the enzyme CBP to promote its activity locally. In turn, the activities of CBP stimulate further enhancer transcription.

In addition to protein-coding messenger RNAs, our cells produce a plethora of diverse non-coding RNA molecules. Many of these are generated from sequences that are distant from genes, and include regulatory DNA sequences called enhancers1. Transcription factors bound at enhancers are thought to regulate gene expression by looping towards genes in 3D space. The potential functions of non-coding enhancer RNAs (eRNAs) in this process have been avidly debated, but there has been a tendency to write them off as accidentally transcribed by-products of enhancer–gene interactions. After all, how could short, unstable, heterogeneous RNAs have a role in gene regulation? Writing in Cell, Bose et al.2 reveal that these eRNAs can indeed be functional, when produced in proximity to the enzyme CBP.

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Figure 1: Enhancer RNA modulates gene expression.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Karen Adelman and Emily Egan are in the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.,

    Karen Adelman & Emily Egan

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  1. Karen Adelman
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  2. Emily Egan
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Correspondence to Karen Adelman.

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Transcription: Enhancers make non-coding RNA

Gene regulation: Long RNAs wire up cancer growth

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Adelman, K., Egan, E. More uses for genomic junk. Nature 543, 183–185 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/543183a

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