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  • Review Article
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Cellular functions of long noncoding RNAs

Abstract

A diverse catalog of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), which lack protein-coding potential, are transcribed from the mammalian genome. They are emerging as important regulators in gene expression networks by controlling nuclear architecture and transcription in the nucleus and by modulating mRNA stability, translation and post-translational modifications in the cytoplasm. In this Review, we highlight recent progress in cellular functions of lncRNAs at the molecular level in mammalian cells.

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Fig. 1: The diversity of lncRNAs in mammalian cells.
Fig. 2: Cellular functions of lncRNAs.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to L. Yang for helpful comments on the manuscript. This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2016YFA0100701), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB19020104), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31830108, 31821004, 31725009, 31861143025), and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (55008728). We apologize to those whose work we were unable to cite due to space limitations.

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Yao, RW., Wang, Y. & Chen, LL. Cellular functions of long noncoding RNAs. Nat Cell Biol 21, 542–551 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41556-019-0311-8

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