Non-Coding RNA

What is the central dogma?

DNA ←→ RNA → catalysis, gene regulation, translation, protein

What does reverse transcriptase do?

Generates DNA from an RNA template - process used by retroviruses

What is the end replication problem?

Chromosomes will shorten every cell division

What is telomerase?

A reverse transcriptase enzyme required to elongate telomeres

What is RNA interference (RNAi)?

Non-coding RNAs that silence gene expression (microRNA, small interfering RNA, long non-coding RNA, etc.)

What do miRNAs do?

Tend to repress mRNA translation rather than induce cleavage, affect many genes, often misregulated in cancer

What are siRNAs?

Arise from exogenous dsRNA templates, important anti-viral mechanism in plants, important in molecular bio - introducing dsRNA can be used to knock-down expression of any gene matching that sequence

What are long non-coding RNAs?

Non-protein coding transcripts longer than 200 nt, often capped & polyadenylated, can be nuclear/cytoplasmic/both, often RNAP II transcripts

Why have mRNA and not go DNA → protein?

Alternative mRNA splicing increases gene diversity, can make many RNA molecules from a single DNA