Figure 1.

lncRNA as a source of miRNA

Many lncRNA genes contain embedded miRNA sequences (red boxes), which may be located within either an exon (blue box) or an intron (line) of the gene. Furthermore, miRNAs are encoded by independent transcriptional units and often occur in clusters within the genome. The three sources result in very different types of primary transcript but the pathways converge at the level of pre-miRNA structure. lncRNA, long non-coding RNA; miRNA, microRNA; pri-miRNA, primary miRNA; pre-miRNA, precursor miRNA.