超基因:基因表达的“多面手”

Supergenes:Generalists in Gene Expression

真核生物基因组的转录是基因表达的重要环节,转录产物不仅包括编码蛋白的信使RNA,还包括众多类型的非编码RNA。在转录过程中,有些基因位点可生成不止一种RNA分子,其中可能包括编码RNA分子,但更多的是非编码RNA分子,这类可转录生成多种RNA分子的基因位点被命名为超基因。根据转录模式的不同,超基因分为Ⅰ型、Ⅱ型和Ⅲ型。本文结合实例,对各型超基因的转录特点及其在细胞中的调控作用进行综述。

In eukaryote cells,transcription from genome DNA is a key process of gene expression.The transcription products contain not only messenger RNAs that code proteins,but also various types of non-coding RNAs.During transcription,some of the gene loci produce more than one kind of RNA molecule,including coding RNAs and more often non-coding RNAs.These gene loci that generate several kinds of RNA molecules are named supergenes.According to the transcription pattern,supergenes are divided into three types,known as typesⅠ,ⅡandⅢ.In this review,we summarize the transcription pattern of each type of supergene,and exposit the role of these genes in cells.