The RNA Atlas expands the catalog of human non-coding RNAs

Lucia Lorenzi, Hua Sheng Chiu, Francisco Avila Cobos, Stephen Gross, Pieter Jan Volders, Robrecht Cannoodt, Justine Nuytens, Katrien Vanderheyden, Jasper Anckaert, Steve Lefever, Aidan P. Tay, Eric J. de Bony, Wim Trypsteen, Fien Gysens, Marieke Vromman, Tine Goovaerts, Thomas Birkballe Hansen, Scott Kuersten, Nele Nijs, Tom TaghonKarim Vermaelen, Ken R. Bracke, Yvan Saeys, Tim De Meyer, Nandan P. Deshpande, Govardhan Anande, Ting Wen Chen, Marc R. Wilkins, Ashwin Unnikrishnan, Katleen De Preter, Jørgen Kjems, Jan Koster, Gary P. Schroth, Jo Vandesompele, Pavel Sumazin*, Pieter Mestdagh*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

86 Scopus citations

Abstract

Existing compendia of non-coding RNA (ncRNA) are incomplete, in part because they are derived almost exclusively from small and polyadenylated RNAs. Here we present a more comprehensive atlas of the human transcriptome, which includes small and polyA RNA as well as total RNA from 300 human tissues and cell lines. We report thousands of previously uncharacterized RNAs, increasing the number of documented ncRNAs by approximately 8%. To infer functional regulation by known and newly characterized ncRNAs, we exploited pre-mRNA abundance estimates from total RNA sequencing, revealing 316 microRNAs and 3,310 long non-coding RNAs with multiple lines of evidence for roles in regulating protein-coding genes and pathways. Our study both refines and expands the current catalog of human ncRNAs and their regulatory interactions. All data, analyses and results are available for download and interrogation in the R2 web portal, serving as a basis for future exploration of RNA biology and function.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1453-1465
Number of pages13
JournalNature Biotechnology
Volume39
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - 11 2021
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature America, Inc.

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