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Investigating the Importance
of non-coding transcripts
Background
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Currently there is little known about what
parts of the genome sequence are expressed
as mRNA transcripts and whether or not they
are functional transcripts
The relationship between transcription and
conservation is not fully understood.
Non-coding RNAs are difficult to identify but
are biologically important.
Other studies…
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suggest that a large fraction of non-coding elements are
conserved because of functional constraints
the human genome does not account for any non-coding
RNAs and addition of these to the gene count would
greatly increase the complexity of the human genome
non-coding RNAs are becoming a functional class of
transcripts important for splicing, nucleolar and
ribosomal structures, telomeric sequence addition,
transport and insertion of protein into membranes and
down regulation of translation.
Purpose
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The purpose of this project is to identify noncoding RNAs using transcription data.
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Try to characterize a relationship between
conservation and transcription
Methods
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Using the UCSC Genome Browser I found
-conserved non-coding transcripts
-not conserved non-coding transcripts
by computing a series of intersections.
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Then excluding the retrotransposons I
analyzed the evofold structure predictions of
the conserved non-coding transcripts to
analyze their possible functions
Results
Results continued…
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Evofold prediction with a score of 645 found
near the FOXP2 gene.
FOXP2 gene is thought to be needed for
proper development of speech and language
regions of the brain during embryogenesis.
There is a possibility that this particular noncoding transcript may have some functional
contribution in the development of the FOXP2
gene
Conclusions
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The results I have obtained suggest conserved non-coding
genes are most likely transcribed for a functional reason.
Non-coding transcripts should not be disregarded because
they can have other relevant functions
People have discovered non-coding transcripts with important
functions and perhaps this is why some of these non-coding
sequences are conserved.
This begins to answer the question of the relationship of
conservation and transcription.
Further investigation in this area can lead to the discovery of
many new functionally important transcripts that are not
currently accounted for in the human genome