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PMID: 11713189 Published · ppublish English Journal Article

Non-coding RNAs: the architects of eukaryotic complexity.

EMBO reports ·Vol. 2 ·No. 11 ·2001-11-00 ·Pages 986-91

Mattick JS

Abstract

Around 98% of all transcriptional output in humans is non-coding RNA. RNA-mediated gene regulation is widespread in higher eukaryotes and complex genetic phenomena like RNA interference, co-suppression, transgene silencing, imprinting, methylation, and possibly position-effect variegation and transvection, all involve intersecting pathways based on or connected to RNA signaling. I suggest that the central dogma is incomplete, and that intronic and other non-coding RNAs have evolved to comprise a second tier of gene expression in eukaryotes, which enables the integration and networking of complex suites of gene activity. Although proteins are the fundamental effectors of cellular function, the basis of eukaryotic complexity and phenotypic variation may lie primarily in a control architecture composed of a highly parallel system of trans-acting RNAs that relay state information required for the coordination and modulation of gene expression, via chromatin remodeling, RNA-DNA, RNA-RNA and RNA-protein interactions. This system has interesting and perhaps informative analogies with small world networks and dataflow computing.

MeSH Terms
Animals Chromatin/metabolism Eukaryotic Cells/metabolism Gene Expression Genome Humans Introns Phenotype RNA/genetics,metabolism,physiology Transcription, Genetic Transcriptional Activation
Chemicals
Chromatin RNA
Authors & Affiliations
1 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Mattick J S
ARC Special Research Centre for Functional and Applied Genomics, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia. j.mattick@imb.uq.edu.au
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Article Info
Journal
EMBO reports
Abbr.
EMBO Rep
ISSN
1469-221X
DOI
10.1093/embo-reports/kve230
Email
j.mattick@imb.uq.edu.au
Published
2001-11-00
Pages
986-91
Language
English
Region
England
NLM ID
100963049
PMCID
PMC1084129
Subset
IM
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1093/embo-reports/kve230 PMC Full Text View journal details
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