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Merck

Long noncoding RNAs are generated from the mitochondrial genome and regulated by nuclear-encoded proteins.

RNA (New York, N.Y.) (2011-10-27)
Oliver Rackham, Anne-Marie J Shearwood, Tim R Mercer, Stefan M K Davies, John S Mattick, Aleksandra Filipovska
RESUMEN

Human mitochondrial long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have not been described to date. By analysis of deep-sequencing data we have identified three lncRNAs generated from the mitochondrial genome and confirmed their expression by Northern blotting and strand-specific qRT-PCR. We show that the abundance of these lncRNAs is comparable to their complementary mRNAs and that nuclear-encoded mitochondrial proteins involved in RNA processing regulate their expression. We also identify the 5' and 3' transcript ends of the three lncRNAs and show that mitochondrial RNase P protein 1 (MRPP1) is important for the processing of these transcripts. Finally, we show that mitochondrial lncRNAs form intermolecular duplexes and that their abundance is cell- and tissue-specific, suggesting a functional role in the regulation of mitochondrial gene expression.