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In this Perspective, Werner and colleagues discuss the many potential mechanisms by which natural antisense transcripts (NATs) can regulate expression of their complementary sense transcripts, the biological implications of their regulatory effects and the potential of NATs for therapeutic applications.
Multiple mechanisms have evolved to prevent or trap deleterious unwanted transcripts. The unwanted transcript hypothesis proposes that selection at synonymous sites favours mutations that prevent the generation of unwanted transcripts or that make native transcripts appear ‘wanted’ by being GC-rich.