Expansion of ncRNA-mediated regualtion of gene expression in GO

Nothing says fall like a flurry of GO papers- and one the newest is available now!

GO’s very own Antonazzo, Gaudet, Lovering and Attrill just published in RNA Biology. Antonazzo et al. discuss GO annotation of regulatory ncRNAs including microRNAs (miRNAs), long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs), which is a shift from the traditional protein-coding gene focus of the Gene Ontology. Not only have new GO terms been added to facilitate ncRNA annotation, but this publication offers guidance to curators as well as vital background knowledge for researchers looking to utilize the newly expanded corpus of ncRNA annotations.

As well as other examples, heterochromatin formation is highlighted in the paper. Here’s Fig 2, showing the hierarchy of GO terms for the annotation of ncRNA-mediated heterochromatin formation as well as illustrations of si/piRNA-mediated heterchromatin formation and of gene silencing by si/piRNA-directed DNA methylation.

Read the paper here: Representation of non-coding RNA-mediated regulation of gene expression using the Gene Ontology