The RNAcentral database of non-coding RNAs

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In molecular biology, the central dogma says that the genes in DNA code for RNA. RNA molecules are then translated into proteins that are the mini-machines that carry out the main processes in the cell. It is only recently apparent that many genes code for RNAs, which are not translated into proteins, and which carry out important functions in the cell as RNA. These molecules are often known as non-coding RNAs. Much of the focus in biology has been on DNA and proteins, but recently there has been a surge of interest in non-coding RNAs. In fact, the mini-machine that makes proteins from RNA, called the ribosome, has itself been shown to be an RNA-based machine. Non-coding RNAs have also been shown to be widely involved in regulating the levels of other genes.Research and innovation in the area of non-coding RNAs, and in molecular biology more generally, is hampered by the lack of an authorative and comprehensive resource collecting together all known non-coding RNAs. There are over 20 different online databases that contain information about different types of RNA molecules. Each of these resources makes their information available in different ways. The scattered nature of these resources makes it nearly impossible for biologists to discover what is known about non-coding RNAs related to their research area. In this proposal, we will create a new online resource to collect together information about non-coding RNAs. This resource, called RNAcentral, will be a central warehouse for holding many types of information. The most important information stored is called the sequence of the RNA. Many existing RNA resources (called RNAcentral Expert Databases) will provide their data to RNAcentral using software and interfaces that will be created as part of this proposal. One specific expert database, called miRBase, based at the University of Manchester, will test out the systems for providing data to RNAcentral. RNAcentral will hold the common information about each type of RNA. For more specialised information, RNAcentral will provide links back to the RNAcentral Expert Databases.In order to make the RNAcentral resource cost effective, we will be reusing and modifying code that is already in use by the European Nucleotide Archive and Ensembl Genomes. These two databases are based at the European Bioinformatics Institute near Cambridge. By the end of this project, researchers from around the UK and the rest of the world will have access to a single resource of RNA sequence information. This information will be freely available in a variety of ways including via a website and as a downloadable database.