Abstract
Long non-coding RNAs are estimated to qualitatively represent ∼98% of expressed transcripts in human cells, a large proportion of which is antisense to protein-coding and non-coding transcripts. Here we review evidence from several experimental systems that suggests long antisense non-coding RNAs are involved in the transcriptional regulation of gene expression by altering epigenetic states at both adjacent and distal loci. We also review the initial evidence for a role of endogenous long antisense non-coding RNAs in oncogenic cellular transformation.
Key words: non-coding RNA, antisense RNA, miRNA, epigenetics, transcription, silencing, RNAi, humans
Several recent studies have demonstrated pervasive antisense transcription in human cells.1–8 Many of these antisense RNAs are unspliced, lack a poly-adenylation signal and are generally more than 200 bp long.2,9 The transcriptional landscape becomes even more complex when intergenic and size-selected RNAs are assessed.10–12 Clearly, much more of the human genome is transcribed than we have previously appreciated. Estimates for human and murine cells suggest that ∼61–72% of all transcribed regions express long non-coding RNAs that are in the antisense orientation relative to adjacent protein-coding genes.5,13 There appears to be little conservation of non-coding RNAs across species.14 Most of these transcripts are not annotated; they might play a role in determining species-specific traits.15 Here we consider evidence that suggests a role of long, antisense noncoding RNAs in the regulation of transcription.
Antisense non-coding RNAs as regulators of gene transcription have emerged from early observations in prokaryotes where antisense RNAs were shown to regulate transcription.16 Several examples of human genes regulated by antisense RNAs had been documented by the mid-1990s.17 In human cells, antisense RNAs were found to suppress the expression of their sense counterparts.18 This mode of regulation was thought to result from secondary structures generated by the sense and antisense RNAs or from a block in translation due to sense-antisense pairing.16 While there were several plausible explanations for the regulation of sense RNAs by their antisense counterparts, there was little mechanistic information supporting these suppositions.16 Data generated over the last year have begun to provide insights into the mechanisms of transcriptional regulation mediated by long antisense non-coding RNAs. These mechanisms involve antisense RNA-directed remodeling of chromatin at target loci.
The importance of such epigenetic changes and their role in the regulation of gene expression has long been recognized.19,20 Transcriptional activation and transcriptional silencing are mediated and accompanied by changes in the chromatin.21 Common transcriptional silencing marks include methylation of genomic DNA at CpG sites and methylation of histones. The principal marks for actively transcribed chromatin are acetylation of histone 3 at specific sites. At gene promoters, these epigenetic changes have profound effects on gene expression, presumably because they affect the ability of RNA polymerase II and of transcription factors to localize to the promoter. Epigenetic marks can be passed on to daughter cells, and a particular epigenetic change can profoundly affect generations of daughter cells.22 However, it is not known how the molecular machinery that induces epigenetic changes is recruited to a specific genetic locus. In plants, small non-coding double stranded RNAs direct DNA methylation to loci showing sequence homology.23 Similar observations have been made in human cells with small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) designed to target gene promoters.24 Small non-coding RNAs, either siRNAs or antisense RNAs, can function in human cells to direct the enzymatic machineries for methylation of histone 3 at lysines 9 and 27 (H3K9 and H3K27) and for methylation of DNA to genomic loci showing sequence homology to the particular non-coding RNA. These activities are correlated with transcriptional gene silencing (TGS) of the targeted locus.25,26 The observations suggest that it is possible to affect gene transcription in a targeted manner. The effector molecules governing such epigenetic control of transcription remained unidentified.
Two key observations with small RNA-directed TGS in human cells shed some light on possible endogenous mechanisms: (i) Only the antisense strand of a promoter-targeted siRNA was required to direct TGS; and (ii) DNA methyltransferase 3a (DNMT3a) was essential for TGS and was localized to the targeted locus.27 These findings were strikingly similar to previous observations showing that, in human cells, long antisense non-coding RNAs direct epigenetic marks to imprinted loci.28,29 Furthermore, X chromosome inactivation in females, which involves Xist and its counterpart antisense RNA, Tsix, requires the localization of DNMT3a to targeted loci.30
The similarities between imprinted genes and TGS suggested a common endogenous pathway, possibly involving long antisense non-coding RNAs in the recruitment of chromatin-modifying machinery.26,27 The role of small non-coding RNAs as mediators of TGS might then be to usurp an endogenous pathway that includes long non-coding RNAs. Recent evidence supports this supposition and suggests that long non-coding RNAs mediate both locus- and allele-specific regulation of non-imprinted genes.31,32
Observations on tumor suppressor genes in human cells have identified long antisense non-coding RNAs as regulators of transcription. Overexpression of the particular non-coding RNA resulted in stable, epigenetic silencing of the sense mRNA counterpart at the promoter,31 whereas the loss of the long antisense non-coding RNA induced a significant increase in the expression of the sense mRNA counterpart and hence gene activation.32 These non-coding RNAs may function by recruiting epigenetic modulatory proteins to their homologous target loci.33 By localizing to the target gene, they can modify the local chromatin architecture in a manner that would affect transcription (Fig. 1). Recent observations also document transcriptional regulation by long antisense non-coding RNAs in S. cerevisiae,34,35 bacteria36 and plants.37 Thus yeast, bacteria, plants and humans share a siRNA-independent mechanism involving long non-coding RNAs in the control of transcription. These observations imply the widespread occurrence of an RNA-based transcriptional regulation that operates through long non-coding transcripts.
Figure 1.
Model for long antisense non-coding RNA-mediated transcriptional regulation. (A) Long antisense non-coding RNAs are generated at bidirectionally transcribed loci (antisense strand in red, sense strand in black). (B) The long antisense non-coding RNA is assumed to interact with regions of homology in a sense promoter-associated transcript.50 Alternatively, the long antisense non-coding RNA could interact with the plus strand of the unwound DNA. Such interactions are postulated to trigger the recruitment of chromatin-remodeling proteins DNA methyltransferase 3a (DNMT3a), Argonaute 1 (Ago-1), Enhancer of Zeste (Ezh2), Suv39 h1, histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC-1) and G9a. (C) These chromatin-remodeling complexes would induce changes of the local chromatin architecture, including methylation of DNA, specifically at loci targeted by the long antisense non-coding RNAs.
Among cancer-relevant genes, those encoding p21, E-cadherin,32 p15,31 p53,38 Myc,39 epidermal growth factor homology domain-1 (tie-1)40 and PU.141 have all been shown to be regulated to some extent by long non-coding RNAs. Several of the genes listed in Table 1 can be epigenetically silenced in cancer.42 It is tempting to speculate that such epigenetic silencing might involve the dysregulated production of long antisense non-coding RNA. This supposition leads to the question of what regulates the expression of long antisense non-coding RNAs. One possible explanation is that microRNAs (miRNAs) control the output of bi-directionally transcribed loci.43 In the case of E-cadherin, the miRNA miR373 was found to bind to the E-cadherin antisense non-coding RNA and to affect the expression of E-cadherin.32 Another possible explanation assigns a regulatory role to tiny RNAs (tiRNAs). These are predominantly sense-oriented and centered just downstream of transcriptional start sites44 apparently related to the position of the first intragenic nucleosome,45 and could conceivably obstruct or influence gene-specific effects of long antisense non-coding RNAs.
Table 1.
Cancer-relevant genes that generate long antisense non-coding RNAs1
| Gene | Protein | Reference |
| CDKN2B | Cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p15INK4b | 31 |
| CDKN2A | Cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p16INK4a | 31 |
| CDKN1A | Cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21/WAF1 | 31, 32 |
| p27KIP1 | Cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p27 | 31 |
| ARF | p14ARF MDM2 inhibitor | 31 |
| TP53 | p53 tumor suppressor protein | 31, 38 |
| TP73 | p73 tumor suppressor protein | 31 |
| p57KIP2 | p57 tumor suppressor protein | 31 |
| TP63 | p63 tumor suppressor protein | 31 |
| APC | adenomatous polyposis coli tumor suppressor protein | 31 |
| WT1 | Wilms tumor protein1 | 31 |
| BRCA1 | breast cancer type 1 susceptibility protein | 31 |
| BRCA2 | breast cancer type 2 susceptibility protein | 31 |
| MLH1 | mutL homolog 1, mismatch repair protein | 31 |
| VHL | von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor | 31 |
| RB1 | retinoblastoma 1 protein | 31 |
| DCC | deleted in colorectal carcinoma transmembrane receptor | 31 |
| DCL1 | Dicer-like 1 protein | 31 |
| NF1 | neurofibromin 1 | 31 |
| PTEN | phosphatase and tensin homolog | 31, 47, 48 |
| CDH1 | E-cadherin protein | 31, 32 |
| MYC | c-Myc oncoprotein | 49 |
Several genes that play important roles in cancer produce long antisense transcripts. Some tumor suppressors on this list are transcriptionally silenced in cancer. This silencing may be mediated by long antisense non-coding RNAs.
The observations reviewed in this article set the stage for more extensive investigations of the role of antisense non-coding RNAs in the control of gene expression. The abundance of non-coding transcription continues to pose a huge challenge to our understanding of the genome and its regulation.46 Determining the functions of long antisense non-coding RNAs is part of that challenge. Whatever the exact natural mechanisms involved, this system of endogenous RNA-mediated transcriptional regulation could be made subject to control by exogenous small RNAs. With appropriate constructs, targeted to the antisense non-coding RNAs or designed to mimic the antisense non-coding RNAs, it should be possible to either activate or suppress gene expression transcriptionally,26 with enormous practical implications.
Acknowledgements
Work of the authors is supported by National Institutes of Health grants R01 HL083473-02 and RO1AI084406-02 (K.V.M.), R01 CA078230-12 (P.K.V.) and P01 CA078045-10 (P.K.V.). This is manuscript 20611 of The Scripps Research Institute. We thank Art Riggs, John S. Mattick, Jonathan R. Hart and Minghao Sun for valuable discussions and suggestions.
Footnotes
Previously published online: www.landesbioscience.com/journals/cc/article/12145
References
- 1.Finocchiaro G, Carro MS, Francois S, Parise P, DiNinni V, Muller H. Localizing hotspots of antisense transcription. Nucleic Acids Res. 2007;35:1488–1500. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkm027. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.He Y, Vogelstein B, Velculescu VE, Papadopoulos N, Kinzler KW. The antisense transcriptomes of human cells. Science. 2008;322:1855–1857. doi: 10.1126/science.1163853. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 3.Osato N, Suzuki Y, Ikeo K, Gojobori T. Transcriptional interferences in cis natural antisense transcripts of humans and mice. Genetics. 2007;176:1299–1306. doi: 10.1534/genetics.106.069484. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 4.Yelin R, Dahary D, Sorek R, Levanon EY, Goldstein O, Shoshan A, et al. Widespread occurrence of antisense transcription in the human genome. Nat Biotechnol. 2003;21:379–386. doi: 10.1038/nbt808. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 5.Katayama S, Tomaru Y, Kasukawa T, Waki K, Nakanishi M, Nakamura M, et al. Antisense transcription in the mammalian transcriptome. Science. 2005;309:1564–1566. doi: 10.1126/science.1112009. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 6.Rosok O, Sioud M. Systematic identification of sense-antisense transcripts in mammalian cells. Nat Biotechnol. 2004;22:104–108. doi: 10.1038/nbt925. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 7.Conley AB, Miller WJ, Jordan IK. Human cis natural antisense transcripts initiated by transposable elements. Trends Genet. 2008;24:53–56. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2007.11.008. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 8.Furuno M, Pang KC, Ninomiya N, Fukuda S, Frith MC, Bult C, et al. Clusters of internally primed transcripts reveal novel long noncoding RNAs. PLoS Genet. 2006;2:37. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.0020037. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 9.Kiyosawa H, Mise N, Iwase S, Hayashizaki Y, Abe K. Disclosing hidden transcripts: mouse natural sense-antisense transcripts tend to be poly(A) negative and nuclear localized. Genome Res. 2005;15:463–474. doi: 10.1101/gr.3155905. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 10.Khalil AM, Guttman M, Huarte M, Garber M, Raj A, Rivea Morales D, et al. Many human large intergenic noncoding RNAs associate with chromatin-modifying complexes and affect gene expression. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2009;106:11667–11672. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0904715106. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 11.Kapranov P, Cheng J, Dike S, Nix DA, Duttagupta R, Willingham AT, et al. RNA maps reveal new RNA classes and a possible function for pervasive transcription. Science. 2007;316:1484–1488. doi: 10.1126/science.1138341. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 12.Guttman M, Amit I, Garber M, French C, Lin MF, Feldser D, et al. Chromatin signature reveals over a thousand highly conserved large non-coding RNAs in mammals. Nature. 2009;458:223–227. doi: 10.1038/nature07672. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 13.Cheng J, Kapranov P, Drenkow J, Dike S, Brubaker S, Patel S, et al. Transcriptional maps of 10 human chromosomes at 5-nucleotide resolution. Science. 2005;308:1149–1154. doi: 10.1126/science.1108625. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 14.Babak T, Blencowe BJ, Hughes TR. A systematic search for new mammalian noncoding RNAs indicates little conserved intergenic transcription. BMC Genomics. 2005;6:104. doi: 10.1186/1471-2164-6-104. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 15.Taft RJ, Pheasant M, Mattick JS. The relationship between non-protein-coding DNA and eukaryotic complexity. Bioessays. 2007;29:288–299. doi: 10.1002/bies.20544. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 16.Stolt P, Zillig W. Antisense RNA mediates transcriptional processing in an archaebacterium, indicating a novel kind of RNase activity. Mol Microbiol. 1993;7:875–882. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.1993.tb01178.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 17.Knee R, Murphy PR. Regulation of gene expression by natural antisense RNA transcripts. Neurochem Int. 1997;31:379–392. doi: 10.1016/s0197-0186(96)00108-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 18.Izant JG, Weintraub H. Constitutive and conditional suppression of exogenous and endogenous genes by anti-sense RNA. Science. 1985;229:345–352. doi: 10.1126/science.2990048. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 19.Tsanev R, Sendov B. An epigenetic mechanism for carcinogenesis. Z Krebsforsch Klin Onkol Cancer Res Clin Oncol. 1971;76:299–319. doi: 10.1007/BF00304033. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 20.Egger G, Liang G, Aparicio A, Jones PA. Epigenetics in human disease and prospects for epigenetic therapy. Nature. 2004;429:457–463. doi: 10.1038/nature02625. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 21.Kouzarides T. Chromatin modifications and their function. Cell. 2007;128:693–705. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2007.02.005. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 22.Morris KV. Non-coding RNAs, epigenetic memory and the passage of information to progeny. RNA Biol. 2009;6:242–247. doi: 10.4161/rna.6.3.8353. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 23.Matzke MA, Primig M, Trnovsky J, Matzke AJ. Reversible methylation and inactivation of marker genes in sequentially transformed tobacco plants. EMBO J. 1989;8:643–649. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1989.tb03421.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 24.Morris KV, Chan SW, Jacobsen SE, Looney DJ. Small interfering RNA-induced transcriptional gene silencing in human cells. Science. 2004;305:1289–1292. doi: 10.1126/science.1101372. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 25.Hawkins PG, Morris KV. RNA and transcriptional modulation of gene expression. Cell Cycle. 2008;7:602–607. doi: 10.4161/cc.7.5.5522. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 26.Morris KV. RNA-directed transcriptional gene silencing and activation in human cells. Oligonucleotides. 2009;19:299–306. doi: 10.1089/oli.2009.0212. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 27.Weinberg MS, Villeneuve LM, Ehsani A, Amarzguioui M, Aagaard L, Chen ZX, et al. The antisense strand of small interfering RNAs directs histone methylation and transcriptional gene silencing in human cells. RNA. 2006;12:256–262. doi: 10.1261/rna.2235106. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 28.Latos PA, Barlow DP. Regulation of imprinted expression by macro non-coding RNAs. RNA Biol. 2009;6:100–106. doi: 10.4161/rna.6.2.7854. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 29.Zaratiegui M, Irvine DV, Martienssen RA. Noncoding RNAs and gene silencing. Cell. 2007;128:763–776. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2007.02.016. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 30.Lee JT. Lessons from X-chromosome inactivation: long ncRNA as guides and tethers to the epigenome. Genes Dev. 2009;23:1831–1842. doi: 10.1101/gad.1811209. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 31.Yu W, Gius D, Onyango P, Muldoon-Jacobs K, Karp J, Feinberg AP, et al. Epigenetic silencing of tumour suppressor gene p15 by its antisense RNA. Nature. 2008;451:202–206. doi: 10.1038/nature06468. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 32.Morris KV, Santoso S, Turner AM, Pastori C, Hawkins PG. Bidirectional transcription directs both transcriptional gene activation and suppression in human cells. PLoS Genet. 2008;4:1000258. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1000258. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 33.Morris KV. Long antisense non-coding RNAs function to direct epigenetic complexes that regulate transcription in human cells. Epigenetics. 2009;4:296–301. doi: 10.4161/epi.4.5.9282. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 34.Camblong J, Iglesias N, Fickentscher C, Dieppois G, Stutz F. Antisense RNA stabilization induces transcriptional gene silencing via histone deacetylation in S. cerevisiae. Cell. 2007;131:706–717. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2007.09.014. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 35.Camblong J, Beyrouthy N, Guffanti E, Schlaepfer G, Steinmetz LM, Stutz F. Trans-acting antisense RNAs mediate transcriptional gene cosuppression in S. cerevisiae. Genes Dev. 2009;23:1534–1545. doi: 10.1101/gad.522509. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 36.Guell M, van Noort V, Yus E, Chen WH, Leigh-Bell J, Michalodimitrakis K, et al. Transcriptome complexity in a genome-reduced bacterium. Science. 2009;326:1268–1271. doi: 10.1126/science.1176951. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 37.Swiezewski S, Liu F, Magusin A, Dean C. Cold-induced silencing by long antisense transcripts of an Arabidopsis Polycomb target. Nature. 2009;462:799–802. doi: 10.1038/nature08618. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 38.Mahmoudi S, Henriksson S, Corcoran M, Mendez-Vidal C, Wiman KG, Farnebo M. Wrap53, a natural p53 antisense transcript required for p53 induction upon DNA damage. Mol Cell. 2009;33:462–471. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2009.01.028. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 39.Celano P, Berchtold CM, Kizer DL, Weeraratna A, Nelkin BD, Baylin SB, et al. Characterization of an endogenous RNA transcript with homology to the antisense strand of the human c-myc gene. J Biol Chem. 1992;267:15092–15096. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 40.Li K, Blum Y, Verma A, Liu Z, Pramanik K, Leigh NR, et al. A noncoding antisense RNA in tie-1 locus regulates tie-1 function in vivo. Blood. 2010;115:133–139. doi: 10.1182/blood-2009-09-242180. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 41.Ebralidze AK, Guibal FC, Steidl U, Zhang P, Lee S, Bartholdy B, et al. PU.1 expression is modulated by the balance of functional sense and antisense RNAs regulated by a shared cis-regulatory element. Genes Dev. 2008;22:2085–2092. doi: 10.1101/gad.1654808. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 42.Cortez CC, Jones PA. Chromatin, cancer and drug therapies. Mutat Res. 2008;647:44–51. doi: 10.1016/j.mrfmmm.2008.07.006. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 43.Khraiwesh B, Arif MA, Seumel GI, Ossowski S, Weigel D, Reski R, et al. Transcriptional control of gene expression by microRNAs. Cell. 2010;140:111–122. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2009.12.023. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 44.Taft RJ, Glazov EA, Cloonan N, Simons C, Stephen S, Faulkner GJ, et al. Tiny RNAs associated with transcription start sites in animals. Nat Genet. 2009;41:572–578. doi: 10.1038/ng.312. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 45.Taft RJ, Kaplan CD, Simons C, Mattick JS. Evolution, biogenesis and function of promoter-associated RNAs. Cell Cycle. 2009;8:2332–2338. doi: 10.4161/cc.8.15.9154. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 46.Tomkins GM, Gelehrter TD, Granner D, Martin DJr, Samuels HH, Thompson EB. Control of specific gene expression in higher organisms. Expression of mammalian genes may be controlled by repressors acting on the translation of messenger RNA. Science. 1969;166:1474–1480. doi: 10.1126/science.166.3912.1474. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 47.Chiba M, Kiyosawa H, Hiraiwa N, Ohkohchi N, Yasue H. Existence of Pink1 antisense RNAs in mouse and their localization. Cytogenet Genome Res. 2009;126:259–270. doi: 10.1159/000251963. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 48.Chiba M, Kubo M, Miura T, Sato T, Rezaeian AH, Kiyosawa H, et al. Localization of sense and antisense transcripts of Prdx2 gene in mouse tissues. Cytogenet Genome Res. 2008;121:222–231. doi: 10.1159/000138889. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 49.Spicer DB, Sonenshein GE. An antisense promoter of the murine c-myc gene is localized within intron 2. Mol Cell Biol. 1992;12:1324–1329. doi: 10.1128/mcb.12.3.1324. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 50.Han J, Kim D, Morris KV. Promoter-associated RNA is required for RNA-directed transcriptional gene silencing in human cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2007;104:12422–12427. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0701635104. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

