Bioinformatics-based functional analysis of telomeric non-coding RNA

端粒是固定线性染色体末端基因组的特殊结构。最近，有报道称端粒dna被转录成非编码rna，称为TERRA。由于TERRA的确切重要性尚不清楚，我们在这里研究了TERRA的功能，特别是在人类癌细胞中的功能。结果发现，TERRA表达量高的癌细胞会降低蛋白X的表达，而蛋白X调节酪氨酸磷酸化引发的生长信号。端粒延长增强TERRA表达，诱导癌细胞分化。这些结果表明，TERRA通过端粒结构的改变来调节其表达，从而调节肿瘤的恶性。这些观察结果可用于癌症的诊断和治疗。

Telomeres are specialized structures that stabilize the genome at the ends of linear chromosomes. Recently, it has been reported that telomeric DNAs are transcribed to non-coding RNAs called TERRA. Since the precise importance of TERRA remains unknown, here we investigated the function of TERRA especially in human cancer cells. As the results, we found that cancer cells with more TERRA expression decrease the expression of protein X, which regulates the growth signal elicited by tyrosine phosphorylation. Telomere elongation enhanced TERRA expression and induced differentiation of cancer cells. These results suggest that TERRA regulates its expression upon the change in telomeric structure and modulates the cancer malignancy. These observations may be utilized for cancer diagnosis and therapeutics.