Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
2013
Journal
Genome Biology
Volume
Volume 14, Issue 7
Inclusive Pages
Article number R73
Abstract
Background
The function of the non-coding portion of the human genome remains one of the most important questions of our time. Its vast complexity is exemplified by the recent identification of an unusual and notable component of the transcriptome - very long intergenic non-coding RNAs, termed vlincRNAs.
Results
Here we identify 2,147 vlincRNAs covering 10 percent of our genome. We show they are present not only in cancerous cells, but also in primary cells and normal human tissues, and are controlled by canonical promoters. Furthermore, vlincRNA promoters frequently originate from within endogenous retroviral sequences. Strikingly, the number of vlincRNAs expressed from endogenous retroviral promoters strongly correlates with pluripotency or the degree of malignant transformation. These results suggest a previously unknown connection between the pluripotent state and cancer via retroviral repeat-driven expression of vlincRNAs. Finally, we show that vlincRNAs can be syntenically conserved in humans and mouse and their depletion using RNAi can cause apoptosis in cancerous cells.
Conclusions
These intriguing observations suggest that vlincRNAs could create a framework that combines many existing short ESTs and lincRNAs into a landscape of very long transcripts functioning in the regulation of gene expression in the nucleus. Certain types of vlincRNAs participate at specific stages of normal development and, based on analysis of a limited set of cancerous and primary cell lines, they appear to be co-opted by cancer-associated transcriptional programs. This provides additional understanding of transcriptome regulation during the malignant state, and could lead to additional targets and options for its reversal.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
APA Citation
St Laurent, G., Shtokalo, D., Dong, B., Tackett, M. R., Fan, X., et al. (2013). VlincRNAs controlled by retroviral elements are a hallmark of pluripotency and cancer. Genome Biology, 14(7), R73.
Peer Reviewed
1
Open Access
1
Comments
Reproduced with permission of BioMed Central. Genome Biology.
Supplementary data can be found on the BioMed Central website.