Fig. 5.

Binary phenotypes – protein null versus RNA null. Normal transcription and translation of a cncRNA will result in wild-type phenotype. Mis-sense or insertion mutations in the genome can result in mutant RNA (red asterisk) that might be stable if not targeted by non-sense mediated decay pathway, and can carry out the non-coding function. So, a protein mutant phenotype will be observed without affecting the activity of the RNA. But mutations that eliminate the transcript (transcription start site or TSS mutations and gene deletions) or antisense oligos that degrade RNA will lead to a binary phenotype resulting from loss of both RNA and protein function. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)