Long non-coding RNAs display higher natural expression variation than protein-coding genes in healthy humans.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are increasingly implicated as gene regulators and may ultimately be more numerous than protein-coding genes in the human genome. Despite large numbers of reported lncRNAs, reference annotations are likely incomplete due to their lower and tighter tissue-specific expression compared to mRNAs. An unexplored factor potentially confounding lncRNA identification is inter-individual expression variability. Here, we characterize lncRNA natural expression variability in human primary granulocytes.

Results

We annotate granulocyte lncRNAs and mRNAs in RNA-seq data from 10 healthy individuals, identifying multiple lncRNAs absent from reference annotations, and use this to investigate three known features (higher tissue-specificity, lower expre

SUBMITTER: Kornienko AE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4731934 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature