Small RNA
Small RNA (sRNA) are polymeric RNA molecules that are less than 200 nucleotides in length, and are usually non-coding
Non-coding DNA (ncDNA) sequences are components of an organism's DNA that do not encode protein sequences. Some non-coding DNA ...
s (sRNAs) have been identified within the ''
C. elegans
''Caenorhabditis elegans'' () is a free-living transparent nematode about 1 mm in length that lives in temperate soil environments. It is the type species of its genus. The name is a blend of the Greek ''caeno-'' (recent), ''rhabditis'' (r ...
''
genome
In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding ge ...
and comparative
genomics
Genomics is an interdisciplinary field of biology focusing on the structure, function, evolution, mapping, and editing of genomes. A genome is an organism's complete set of DNA, including all of its genes as well as its hierarchical, three-dim ...
has shown that they are conserved across several
nematode
The nematodes ( or grc-gre, Νηματώδη; la, Nematoda) or roundworms constitute the phylum Nematoda (also called Nemathelminthes), with plant-Parasitism, parasitic nematodes also known as eelworms. They are a diverse animal phylum inhab ...
species. These sRNAs contain a characteristic 2,2,7-trimethylguanosine (TMG) cap structure that identifies them as
non-coding RNAs that have a functional role within the cell but at present the exact function of these sRNAs is unknown.
Immunoprecipitation
Immunoprecipitation (IP) is the technique of precipitating a protein antigen out of solution using an antibody that specifically binds to that particular protein. This process can be used to isolate and concentrate a particular protein from a samp ...
using
antibodies
An antibody (Ab), also known as an immunoglobulin (Ig), is a large, Y-shaped protein used by the immune system to identify and neutralize foreign objects such as pathogenic bacteria and viruses. The antibody recognizes a unique molecule of the ...
against TMG and RNA
microarrays were used to identify these sRNA.
Examples
*
sbRNA
sbRNA (stem-bulge RNA) is a family of non-coding RNA first discovered in ''Caenorhabditis elegans''. It was identified during a full transcriptome screen of the ''C. elegans'' cDNA library. Subsequent experimentation characterised sbRNA as having ...
*
SmY RNA
See also
*
''Bacillus subtilis'' sRNA
*
''Escherichia coli'' sRNA
*
''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' sRNA
References
{{reflist
Caenorhabditis elegans genetics
RNA
Non-coding RNA
Nematode nucleic acids