天然反义转录物生物学功能及其意义-中国细胞生物学学报.PDF

中国细胞生物学学报 Chinese Journal of Cell Biology 2013, 35(4): 536–542 天然反义转录物生物学功能及其意义 * 骞爱荣 　李迪杰 商 澎 (西北工业大学生命学院, 西北工业大学特殊环境生物物理学研究所, 空间生物实验模拟技术国防重点学科实验室, 西安 710072) 摘要 天然反义转录物(natural antisense transcripts, NATs)是在自然情况下生物体内产生的内 源性RNA, 它们与其对应的互补RNA通过碱基配对, 形成自然正义—反义转录物配对的双链RNA, 对器官形成、细胞分化和疾病发生等各种生理和病理过程都有重要的调控作用。该文综述了近 年来NATs 的研究进展, 从正反馈调节和负反馈调节两个方面介绍了NATs对正义转录物的影响, 从 RNA编辑、RNA干扰、RNA封闭、转录干扰、DNA 甲基化和组蛋白修饰等方面详细阐述了NATs 的作用机制, 并介绍了NATs与疾病的关系。NATs是一种丰富的生物分子资源, 可用于表观遗传学, 未来有潜在的诊断和治疗价值。 关键词 天然反义转录物(NATs); 正反馈调节; 负反馈调节; 组蛋白修饰DNA; 甲基化 Biological Function and Significance of Natural Antisense Transcripts Qian Airong*, Li Dijie, Shang Peng (Key Laboratory for Space Bioscience and Biotechnology, Institute of Special Environmental Biophysics, School of Life Sciences, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China) Abstract Natural antisense transcripts (NATs) can represent coding or, more commonly, noncoding RNA, which are generated inside the organism under natural condition and widely expressed in various species. NATs play important roles in the regulation of organ development, cell differentiation and disease occurrence. By review- ing the latest advance about NATs in recent years, this article described the effects of NATs on sense transcription by discordant regulation and concordant regulation. The related mechanism of NATs was also introduced from RNA editing, RNA interference, RNA blocking, transcriptional interference, DNA methylation and histone modification, and the relationship between NATs and disease was also described. NATs may represent a potentially abundant source of biomolecules for use in epigenetics and have great po