Long noncoding RNAs are generated from the mitochondrial genome and regulated by nuclear-encoded proteins (original) (raw)
- Anne-Marie J. Shearwood1,
- Tim R. Mercer2,
- Stefan M.K. Davies1,
- John S. Mattick2 and
- Aleksandra Filipovska1,3
- 1Western Australian Institute for Medical Research and Centre for Medical Research, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia 6000, Australia
- 2Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
Abstract
Human mitochondrial long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have not been described to date. By analysis of deep-sequencing data we have identified three lncRNAs generated from the mitochondrial genome and confirmed their expression by Northern blotting and strand-specific qRT–PCR. We show that the abundance of these lncRNAs is comparable to their complementary mRNAs and that nuclear-encoded mitochondrial proteins involved in RNA processing regulate their expression. We also identify the 5′ and 3′ transcript ends of the three lncRNAs and show that mitochondrial RNase P protein 1 (MRPP1) is important for the processing of these transcripts. Finally, we show that mitochondrial lncRNAs form intermolecular duplexes and that their abundance is cell- and tissue-specific, suggesting a functional role in the regulation of mitochondrial gene expression.
Footnotes
↵3 Corresponding author.
E-mail afilipov{at}waimr.uwa.edu.au.Article published online ahead of print. Article and publication date are at http://www.rnajournal.org/cgi/doi/10.1261/rna.029405.111.
Received July 19, 2011.
Accepted September 26, 2011.
Copyright © 2011 RNA Society