The role of interactions of long non-coding RNAs and heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins in regulating cellular functions

Authors

Xinghui Sun, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Mohamed Sham Shihabudeen Haider Ali, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Matthew Moran, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

8-11-2017

Citation

Biochemical Journal (2017) 474 2925–2935 DOI: 10.1042/BCJ20170280

Comments

© 2017 The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Portland Press Limited on behalf of the Biochemical Society and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND).

Abstract

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are emerging as critical regulators of various biological processes and human diseases. The mechanisms of action involve their interactions with proteins, RNA and genomic DNA. Most lncRNAs display strong nuclear localization. Heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins (hnRNPs) are a large family of RNA-binding proteins that are important for multiple aspects of nucleic acid metabolism. hnRNPs are also predominantly expressed in the nucleus. This review discusses the interactions of lncRNAs and hnRNPs in regulating gene expression at transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels or by changing genomic structure, highlighting their involvements in glucose and lipid metabolism, immune response, DNA damage response, and other cellular functions. Toward the end, several techniques that are used to identify lncRNA binding partners are summarized. There are still many questions that need to be answered in this relatively new research area, which might provide novel targets to control the biological outputs of cells in response to different stimuli.