lncRNAs功能注释和预测

Annotation and Functional Prediction of lncRNAs

随着测序技术的发展,在各种哺乳动物中发现越来越多的长非编码RNAs(long non-coding RNAs,lncRNAs),但是大部分lncRNAs的功能却未知.鉴于lncRNAs在众多生物过程如免疫反应、发育和基因印迹中表现出对蛋白编码基因和其它非编码RNAs的重要调节作用,对lncRNAs的功能研究也成为生物学家和生物信息学家研究的热点.其中,功能注释和预测是目前研究lncRNAs功能的主要方法之一.本文主要对lncRNAs功能注释和预测方法的研究进展作一综述,包括以下几个方面:基于共表达网络的方法、基于miRNAs的方法、基于蛋白质结合的方法、基于表观遗传修饰的方法以及基于ceRNA网络的方法.为进一步研究lncRNAs的功能提供参考,同时为开发更加有效的注释或预测方法提供线索.

More and more long non-coding RNAs （lncRNAs） have been identified in organisms along with the development of DNA sequencing, however, the functions of most ncRNAs are still unclear. The annotation and prediction of lncRNA functions became a current central topic in the fields of biology and bioinformatics, as lncRNAs play important roles in the regulation of coding or non-coding genes for biological processes, such as immune response, development, and gene imprinting, etc. In this review, we discussed the current progress of the bioinformatics methods for lncRNA annotation or prediction, including the five popular ones： co-expression network-based method, miRNA -based method, protein complex -based method, epigenetic-based method, ceRNA network-based method. Our aim is to provide a useful reference for the ongoing and future studies of the informatics methodology on lncRNAs.