Table 1.

Timeline Table:

1941	One gene-one enzyme2
1953	Double helical structure of DNA described349
1958	Central dogma proposed by Francis Crick6
1961	mRNA confirmed as intermediate between protein and DNA9
1961	Jacob and Monod speculate that the lac repressor is an RNA10
1966	Discovery of heterogenous nuclear RNA27
1969	Model proposed for RNA acting in intermediate fashion in gene regulation28
1972	hnRNAs, chromosomal RNAs shown to be functional without making protein350
1977	Intron ncRNA elements defined34,35
1982–3	Self Splicing catalytic RNAs40,41
1989	Transgene silencing observed in plants71,72
1990	Transgene silencing linked to antisense RNA73
1990	H19 ncRNA discovered351
1992	Xist ncRNA discovered261, 262
1993	Lin-4 miRNA discovered46
1994	Regulatory RNAs proposed to be central to animal evolution and development152
1994	RNA directed DNA methylation observed in plants74
1998	RNA interference described in plants69 and animals352
1999	Tsix, antisense transcript to Xist described264
1999	Small RNA required for PTGS in plants353
2000	Let-7 miRNA discovered47
2001	Dicer described involved in RNAi77
2001	RNAi (PTGS) found functional in human cells354
2001	Regulatory RNA networks proposed to control epigenetic processes245,355
2002	First reports of large numbers of noncoding RNAs in animals153–155
2002	AIR antisense RNA involved in imprinting267
2003	Drosha described in miRNA processing76
2004	Small RNA shown to epigenetically control transcription (TGS) in human cells88
2004	Argonuate 2 directs catalysis in RNAi in mammals356
2005	piRNAs described100
2005	Confirmation of large numbers of long noncoding RNAs in mammals156,158,159
2005	~70% of sense transcripts have antisense counterparts, some show function159
2005	Discovery of the CRISPR system of bacterial RNA-based defence134–136
2006	Antisense RNA TGS shown to require DNMT3a, EZH2, HDAC-1344
2006	Argonautes 1 and 2 found involved in RNA-directed TGS in human cells86,87
2006	ncRNAs involved in trithorax regulation285.
2007	HOTAIR shown to play a role in development and associate with polycomb194
2008	Long antisense RNAs found to epigenetically regulate sense counterparts256,257
2008	LncRNAs shown to interact with trithorax and activated chromatin207
2008	Hundreds of lncRNAs shown to have specific expression in brain198
2009	tiRNAs reported at transcription start sites in mammals121
2009	PRC2 found to interact with a large number of lncRNAs179
2009	Long antisense RNA shown to direct vernalization in plants269
2010	Pseudogene lncRNAs found to regulate protein-coding genes166,340
2012	ENCODE reports ~80% of the genome is transcribing ncRNAs162
2013	Enhancer RNAs shown in oestrogen-dependent transcriptional activation357