Non-coding RNAs articles within Nature

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  • News & Views |

    In experiments dubbed the Random Genome Project, researchers have integrated DNA strands with random sequences into yeast and mouse cells to find the default transcriptional state of their genomes.

    • Sean R. Eddy
  • Article
    | Open Access

    In Caenorhabditis tropicalis, selective expression of genetic alleles from one parent but not the other can arise from maternally inherited small transcripts acting via the PIWI-interacting RNA host defence pathway.

    • Pinelopi Pliota
    • , Hana Marvanova
    •  & Alejandro Burga
  • Article
    | Open Access

    Messenger RNAs transcribed from olfactory-receptor genes may have non-coding functions that include recruitment of transcriptional enhancers and inhibition of potentially thousands of competing alleles to ensure stable transcription of a single allele.

    • Ariel D. Pourmorady
    • , Elizaveta V. Bashkirova
    •  & Stavros Lomvardas
  • News & Views |

    Bacteria and archaea are microorganisms that often use RNA-guided defences called CRISPR to destroy the genomes of viruses that infect them. It now emerges that viruses make RNAs that act as mimics to divert such defences.

    • Carolyn Kraus
    •  & Erik J. Sontheimer
  • Article
    | Open Access

    In response to bacterial CRISPR–Cas immunity, phages and plasmids have evolved small non-coding RNA anti-CRISPRs, known as Racrs, that sequester Cas proteins in abberrant complexes and thereby inhibit immunity.

    • Sarah Camara-Wilpert
    • , David Mayo-Muñoz
    •  & Rafael Pinilla-Redondo
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The endoribonuclease PUCH, a trimer of Schlafen-like-domain proteins, initiates piRNA processing in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans through 5′-end piRNA precursor cleavage.

    • Nadezda Podvalnaya
    • , Alfred W. Bronkhorst
    •  & René F. Ketting
  • Article
    | Open Access

    A study examining bacterial gene expression in human-derived samples identifies a gene encoding a small RNA and describes how it orchestrates the transition between chronic and acute infection in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

    • Pengbo Cao
    • , Derek Fleming
    •  & Marvin Whiteley
  • News & Views |

    The enzyme Dicer cleaves a type of RNA called a pre-microRNA to make the mature functional RNA. Structural evidence now sheds light on the catalytic mechanism involved and the role of a newly found RNA sequence termed GYM.

    • Gunter Meister
  • Article |

    The active-state structure of human DICER bound to pre-miRNA reveals the structural basis for the specificity of DICER in how it selects substrates in a sequence dependent manner, and sheds light on DICER-related diseases.

    • Young-Yoon Lee
    • , Hansol Lee
    •  & Soung-Hun Roh
  • Article |

    Massively parallel assays reveal a highly conserved sequence motif termed the GYM motif, which potentiates RNA interference by directing Dicer-mediated small RNA processing.

    • Young-Yoon Lee
    • , Haedong Kim
    •  & V. Narry Kim
  • Article
    | Open Access

    The structures of single COOLAIR RNA isoforms change in abundance and shape in response to external conditions; structural mutation of these isoforms altered FLC expression and flowering time, consistent with a regulatory role of the COOLAIR structure in FLC transcription.

    • Minglei Yang
    • , Pan Zhu
    •  & Yiliang Ding
  • Article |

    Herpesvirus microRNAs interfere directly with host cell microRNA processing, thereby disrupting mitochondrial architecture, evading intrinsic host defences and driving the switch from latent to lytic infection.

    • Thomas Hennig
    • , Archana B. Prusty
    •  & Bhupesh K. Prusty
  • News & Views |

    In an impressively thorough study, phosphorylation in the core of a transfer RNA molecule has been described for the first time, and the enzymes that add and remove the phosphate group have been characterized.

    • Mark Helm
    •  & Yuri Motorin
  • Article
    | Open Access

    In Arabidopsis thaliana, downregulation of the floral repressor FLC in response to cold occurs through a mechanism in which the FLC activator FRIGIDA is sequestered into biomolecular condensates away from the FLC promoter.

    • Pan Zhu
    • , Clare Lister
    •  & Caroline Dean
  • Article |

    Cryo-electron microscopy structures of a PIWI–piRNA complex provide insight into how piRNAs recognise target RNAs and reveal differences from the target mechanisms of microRNAs.

    • Todd A. Anzelon
    • , Saikat Chowdhury
    •  & Ian J. MacRae
  • Article |

    The natural antisense transcript MAPT-AS1 interferes with translation of mRNA transcript into tau protein in the brain and may represent a general mechanism for controlling levels of intrinsically disordered proteins, with particular relevance for neurodegeneration.

    • Roberto Simone
    • , Faiza Javad
    •  & Rohan de Silva
  • Article |

    Telomeric-repeat-containing RNA is recruited to telomeres by a mechanism that involves the DNA recombinase RAD51 and the formation of DNA–RNA hybrids, or R-loops—a process similar to that involved in homology-directed DNA repair.

    • Marianna Feretzaki
    • , Michaela Pospisilova
    •  & Joachim Lingner
  • Article |

    A protein condensate formed by multivalent interactions between the long non-coding RNA Xist and specific RNA-binding proteins drives the compartmentalization required to perpetuate gene silencing on the inactive X chromosome.

    • Amy Pandya-Jones
    • , Yolanda Markaki
    •  & Kathrin Plath
  • Article |

    RNA polymerase II has an unexpected function in the nucleolus, helping to drive the expression of ribosomal RNA and to protect nucleolar structure through a mechanism involving triplex R-loop structures.

    • Karan J. Abraham
    • , Negin Khosraviani
    •  & Karim Mekhail
  • Article |

    In Caenorhabditis elegans, the ribonucleotidyltransferase RDE-3 adds alternating uridine and guanosine ribonucleotides to the 3′ termini of RNAs, a key step in RNA interference and thus epigenetic inheritance in the C. elegans germline.

    • Aditi Shukla
    • , Jenny Yan
    •  & Scott Kennedy
  • Article |

    Long noncoding RNAs and certain unstable transcripts tend to localize to chromatin, in a process that is shown here to depend on an RNA motif that recognizes the small nuclear ribonuclear protein U1, and to rely on transcription.

    • Yafei Yin
    • , J. Yuyang Lu
    •  & Xiaohua Shen
  • News & Views |

    A key DNA-repair enzyme has a surprising role during the early steps in the assembly of ribosomes — the molecular machines that translate the genetic code into protein.

    • Alan J. Warren
  • News & Views |

    The non-coding RNA Xist has been shown to enlist the SPEN protein to recruit a team of protein complexes — initiating the process that prevents transcription of one of the two X chromosomes found in female mammalian cells.

    • Jackson B. Trotman
    •  & J. Mauro Calabrese
  • Article |

    A silkworm model recapitulates key steps of Zucchini-mediated cleavage of pre-pre-piRNA and provides insights into Zucchini-mediated and -independent pathways that generate pre-piRNAs, which converge to a common piRNA maturation step.

    • Natsuko Izumi
    • , Keisuke Shoji
    •  & Yukihide Tomari
  • Article |

    Analyses of primary and relapse samples of embryonal tumours with multilayered rosettes provide insights into the molecular mechanisms that underlie the development and opportunities for the treatment of this deadly disease.

    • Sander Lambo
    • , Susanne N. Gröbner
    •  & Marcel Kool
  • Article |

    A transcriptome dataset from seven organs and seven mammalian species throughout development is used to analyse the expression of long noncoding RNAs in tissues within and between species, and at different stages of organ development.

    • Ioannis Sarropoulos
    • , Ray Marin
    •  & Henrik Kaessmann
  • News & Views |

    Gene mutations that truncate the encoded protein can trigger the expression of related genes. The discovery of this compensatory response changes how we think about genetic studies in humans and model organisms.

    • Miles F. Wilkinson
  • Article |

    Transcriptional adaptation, a genetic compensation process by which organisms respond to mutations by upregulating related genes, is triggered by mRNA decay and involves a sequence-dependent mechanism.

    • Mohamed A. El-Brolosy
    • , Zacharias Kontarakis
    •  & Didier Y. R. Stainier
  • News & Views |

    Intron sequences are removed from newly synthesized RNA and usually rapidly degraded. However, it now seems that introns have a surprising role — helping yeast cells survive when nutrients are scarce.

    • Samantha R. Edwards
    •  & Tracy L. Johnson