Non-coding RNAs articles from across Nature Portfolio

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that induce RNA silencing. Advances in high-throughput and structural studies have provided new insights into animal miRNA biogenesis mediated by RNA–protein interactions, miRNA tailing (uridylation or adenylation) and RNA modifications, and have increased our understanding of miRNA target recognition and target-directed miRNA decay.

The circadian clock regulates the rhythmic expression of mir-219-1, mir-219-2, and mir219-3, and miR-219-5p contributes to circadian regulation by targeting bmal1b, highlighting a miR-219-5p-bmal1b negative feedback loop in the circadian circuit.

A study in Science investigating bacterial defence mechanisms against phages reports a novel mode of gene regulation through reverse transcription of a non-coding RNA template, leading to the formation of a toxic repetitive gene.

Genetic variants in RNU4-2, a gene in a part of the genome not usually in the spotlight, have been identified as the cause of a developmental disorder in a large number of individuals who previously lacked a diagnosis.

Two studies in Nature reveal the mechanistic and structural properties of a family of mobile genetic elements that can be reprogrammed to engineer genome modifications.

RNA-guided recombinase enzymes have been discovered that herald a new chapter for genome editing — enabling the insertion, inversion or deletion of long DNA sequences at user-specified genome positions.