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Table 1 General functions of non-coding RNAs

From: Non-coding RNAs and epithelial mesenchymal transition in cancer: molecular mechanisms and clinical implications

Abbreviation

Full name

Length (nt)

Function

Small non-coding RNA

 miRNAs

microRNAs

19–24

lead to translational repression or degradation of the target mRNA

 piRNAs

Piwi-interacting RNAs

21–35

are loaded onto members of the PIWI subfamily of Argonaute proteins to repress transposons in germline cells

 snoRNAs

Small nucleolar RNAs

60–300

act as guide RNAs for the post-transcriptional modification of ribosomal and small nuclear RNAs

 tRFs

Transfer RNA-derived RNA fragments

14–30

like miRNAs, tRFs interact with Argonaute proteins to impair the translation of mRNAs through binding to target 3′ UTRs

Long non-coding RNA

 NATs

Natural antisense transcripts

>  200

transcribed in the antisense direction of overlapping protein-coding genes

are involved in chromatin remodeling, transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation, as well as translation and post-translational modifications

 Pseudogenes

Pseudogenes

>  200

a subclass of the lncRNAs that resemble the protein-coding genes from which they are derived, but no longer produce functional proteins

 lincRNAs

long intergenic ncRNAs

>  200

transcribed from intergenic regions

 SNHGs

Small nucleolar RNA host genes

>  200

a type of lncRNA that contains both snoRNAs (which are produced from introns) and exons

Circular RNA

 circRNAs

Circular RNAs

> 32

A type of covalently closed ncRNA that may interact with other molecules like miRNAs and proteins to regulate their functions