Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2024 May 1.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2024 Jan 19;25(5):396–415. doi: 10.1038/s41580-023-00694-9

Fig. 5 |. Mechanisms of transcription regulation by trans-acting long non-coding RNAs.

Fig. 5 |

a, Association of the long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) Charme, DIGIT and mammary tumour-associated RNA 25 (MaTAR25) with polypyrimidine tract-binding protein 1 (PTBP1)–matrin 3 (MATR3), bromodomain-containing protein 3 (BRD3) and purine-rich element-binding protein A (PURA)–PURB, respectively, drives condensate formation (blue background) and localization at target genes. This localization promotes the activation of broad developmental or disease-associated transcription programmes. b, The lncRNA Firre promotes inter-chromosomal contacts, which facilitates the co-regulation of a genes with shared functions in energy metabolism. c, Sequence complementarity between lncRNAs and one or many genomic regions enables targeting of the lncRNA to specific loci in trans through the formation of a DNA–DNA–(lnc)RNA triplex that involves DNA major groove Hoogstein base pairing. Various lncRNAs, including Fendrr, HOTAIR, HIF1A-AS1, Sarrah and others, have been shown to engage in triplex formation and exert positive or negative effects on target-gene expression. Pol II, polymerase II.