Long Noncoding RNAs in the Heart

Cardiac development is anchored on an intricate program of gene regulation and coordination, associated with critical timing and cell–cell interactions. Rather than a single master regulatory process, as originally envisioned to reside in a transcriptional complex or protein signaling cascade, cardiac development is likely regulated by a network of coordinated gene expressions, critically timed, and calibrated. Noncoding RNAs (ncRNA) are now seen as key new players in this regulatory network, and the road map is only beginning to be constructed.