The small peptide world in long noncoding RNAs

• Published in: Briefings in bioinformatics Vol. 20; no. 5; pp. 1853 - 1864
• Main Authors: Choi, Seo-Won, Kim, Hyun-Woo, Nam, Jin-Wu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Oxford University Press 27-09-2019; Oxford Publishing Limited (England)
• Subjects: Gene sequencing; Genomes; Non-coding RNA; Nucleotides; Peptides; Review; long noncoding RNA (lncRNA); small peptide; small ORF; coding-potential prediction
• ISSN: 1467-5463; 1477-4054
• DOI: 10.1093/bib/bby055

Abstract
Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a group of transcripts that are longer than 200 nucleotides (nt) without coding potential. Over the past decade, tens of thousands of novel lncRNAs have been annotated in animal and plant genomes because of advanced high-throughput RNA sequencing technologies and with the aid of coding transcript classifiers. Further, a considerable number of reports have revealed the existence of stable, functional small peptides (also known as micropeptides), translated from lncRNAs. In this review, we discuss the methods of lncRNA classification, the investigations regarding their coding potential and the functional significance of the peptides they encode.