The impact of non‐coding RNAs

Abstract

The EMBO workshop on the New Functions of Regulatory RNAs in Pro‐ & Eukaryotes took place between 13 and 15 January 2009, in Vienna, Austria, and was organized by R. Schroeder, D. Barlow & E. Westhof. ![][1] See Glossary for abbreviations used in this article The central role of RNA in translation has been accepted for more than 50 years, although classically the only known roles for RNA were as a template for translation (mRNA) or as part of the translational machinery (rRNA and tRNA). In 1989, S. Altman and T. Cech received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their discovery of RNA catalysis; Altman described the catalytic activity of the RNA molecule in the RNase P ribozyme of Escherichia coli (Guerrier‐Takada et al , 1983) and, concurrently, Cech observed the self‐splicing reaction of the Tetrahymena rRNA precursor (Kruger et al , 1982). As RNA has generally been considered to have a passive role in translation, these important milestones have drastically changed our view of RNA to be an enzymatically active molecule. Since then, several abundant small ‘non‐mRNAs’ have been discovered such as the small‐nuclear RNAs of the splicosome and small‐nucleolar RNAs that are involved in rRNA modification. More recently, other small RNAs—such as siRNAs and microRNAs—have been shown to inhibit translation through direct interactions with the mRNA. At the beginning of the new millennium, the impact of RNA on the regulation of gene expression was foreseeable. The hunt for non‐coding regulatory RNAs (ncRNAs) is ongoing in prokaryotes and eukaryotes, and large research efforts are being directed towards elucidating the mechanisms whereby they control gene expression. This EMBO workshop highlighted recent findings on the regulatory role of RNA in all kingdoms of life, covering various RNA‐based regulatory mechanisms, from chromatin modifications to translational repression and RNA degradation. Several talks at the workshop focused … [1]: /embed/graphic-1.gif