FBS Colloquia No.396RNA Biofunction Laboratory

Approaches for Identifying Functional lncRNAs by Focusing on Semi-Extractable RNAs

A large number of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are transcribed from the human genome and are thought to play critical roles in the regulation of gene expression. However, the functions of most lncRNAs remain poorly understood. To facilitate the efficient and comprehensive identification of such uncharacterized lncRNAs, we focus on a molecular property referred to as "semi-extractability." Semi-extractable RNAs are a subset of transcripts that are poorly recovered by conventional RNA extraction methods and include biologically significant molecules such as architectural RNAs (arcRNAs), which act as structural scaffolds for membraneless organelles. In this colloquium, we present our approaches to uncovering functional lncRNAs that are often overlooked in standard transcriptome analyses by leveraging RNA extractability as a novel axis of investigation.