内含子microRNA——基因组中的暗物质

Intronic microRNA: the dark matter of the genome

基因的内含子一直被认为是基因组中的"垃圾"序列。自上世纪末发现其编码了与RNA剪接相关的一些分子以来,人们对内含子的意义有了重新认识。随着micoRNA研究的深入,现已证实40%的microRNA由内含子所编码,这进一步提升了内含子在基因表达调控中的地位。内含子编码的microRNA长期未被人们所认识,但确实具有一定的生物学功能,可称得上是"基因组中的暗物质"。

Introns are known as the junk sequence of the genome. Some non-coding RNAs involved in RNA splicing have been found in introns in the last end of the century, which make people to review the significance ofintrons. Up to now, over 40% of known microRNAs are located within introns of coding genes, which highlights the roles of introns in regulation of gene expression further. We call intronic microRNA as the ＂dark matter＂ of genome for not only their biological roles but also their mysterious origin.