Figure 3

Schematic illustration of lncRNAs functioning. LncRNA transcribed from an upstream non-coding promoter can negatively (1) or positively (2) affect expression of the downstream gene by inhibiting RNA polymerase II recruitment and/or inducing chromatin remodeling, respectively. LncRNA is able to hybridize to the pre-mRNA and block recognition of the splice sites by the spliceosome, thus resulting in an alternatively spliced transcript (3). Alternatively, hybridization of the sense and antisense transcripts can allow Dicer to generate endogenous siRNAs (4). The binding of lncRNA to the miRNA results in the miRNA function silencing (5). The complex of lncRNA and specific protein partners can modulate the activity of the protein (6), is involved in structural and organization roles of the cell (7), alters the protein localizes in the cell (8), and affects epigenetic processes (9). Finally, long ncRNAs can be processed to the small RNAs (10).