Figure 1.

Biological mechanisms of lncRNAs are shown in this figure. Pink, blue, green lines stand for lncRNA, mRNA and DNA, respectively. lncRNA mechanisms can be divided into three parts. (A) At pre-transcription level, the regulation of lncRNAs associated with epigenetic regulation, involves histone modification, DNA methylation, gene imprinting, and chromosome dosage compensation. (B) At transcription level, lncRNAs can affect transcription of neighboring genes and genes on different chromosomes. Sometimes, lncRNAs may also cooperate with transcription factors to regulate the transcription of target genes. (C) At post-transcriptional level, lncRNAs always act as a ceRNA, or is engaged to modulate mRNA stability and translation, and influence cellular signaling cascades. LncRNAs’ functions lie on their subcellular localization. Nuclear lncRNAs mainly functions in pre-transcription level and transcription level regulation, while cytoplasmic lncRNAs are involved in post-transcription regulation.