Non-coding RNAs are dominant in the genomic output of the higher organisms being not simply occasional transcripts with idiosyncratic functions, but constituting an extensive regulatory network. Among all the species of non-coding RNAs, small non-coding RNAs (miRNAs, siRNAs and piRNAs) have been shown to be in the core of the regulatory machinery of all the genomic output in eukaryotic cells. S...

Aging has a remarkable impact on the function of the heart, and is independently associated with increased risk for cardiovascular diseases. Cardiac aging is an intrinsic physiological process that results in impaired cardiac function, along with lots of cellular and molecular changes. Non-coding RNAs include small transcripts, such as microRNAs and a wide range of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs...

The herpesviruses are a family of large DNA viruses capable of establishing lifelong infections. Recent reports have shown that herpesviruses package non-coding RNA into virions; this follows earlier observations showing that coding RNAs are detected in virions. Packaging RNAs allows for their function immediately after virus entry and in the absence of de novo transcription. Despite the collec...

The microRNAs are a group of 20 nucleotides-long non-coding RNAs. By binding to the 3'UTR region of target mRNA, microRNAs can perform extensive actions mediating gene expression at post-trancriptional stages. It makes microRNAs serve as very crucial regulators in various biological progress including carcinogenesis. Long non-coding RNAs, however, are a subgroup of RNA with the length of 200 nu...

It has been found that the majority of disease-associated genetic variants identified by genome-wide association studies are located outside of protein-coding regions, where they seem to affect regions that control transcription (promoters, enhancers) and non-coding RNAs that also can influence gene expression. In this review, we focus on two classes of non-coding RNAs that are currently a majo...

Over the past decade, scientific discoveries have highlighted new roles for a unique class of non-coding RNAs. Transcribed from the genome, these non-coding RNAs have been implicated in determining the biological complexity seen in mammals by acting as transcriptional and translational regulators. Non-coding RNAs, which can be sub-classified into long non-coding RNAs, microRNAs, PIWI-interactin...

Small non-coding RNAs with important regulatory roles are not confined to eukaryotes. Recent studies have led to the identification of numerous small regulatory RNAs in Escherichia coli and in other bacteria. As in eukaryotic cells, a major class of these small RNAs acts by base-pairing with target mRNAs, resulting in changes in the translation and stability of the mRNA. Roles for these non-cod...

The past two decades have seen an explosion in research on non-coding RNAs and their physiological and pathological functions. Several classes of small (20-30 nucleotides) and long (>200 nucleotides) non-coding RNAs have been firmly established as key regulators of gene expression in myriad processes ranging from embryonic development to innate immunity. In this review, we focus on our current ...