Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2016 Apr;17(4):207-23.
doi: 10.1038/nrg.2016.4. Epub 2016 Mar 7.

Enhancers as non-coding RNA transcription units: recent insights and future perspectives

Wenbo Li  1 , Dimple Notani  1 , Michael G Rosenfeld  1
Affiliations
Review

Enhancers as non-coding RNA transcription units: recent insights and future perspectives

Wenbo Li et al. Nat Rev Genet. 2016 Apr.

Abstract

Networks of regulatory enhancers dictate distinct cell identities and cellular responses to diverse signals by instructing precise spatiotemporal patterns of gene expression. However, 35 years after their discovery, enhancer functions and mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Intriguingly, recent evidence suggests that many, if not all, functional enhancers are themselves transcription units, generating non-coding enhancer RNAs. This observation provides a fundamental insight into the inter-regulation between enhancers and promoters, which can both act as transcription units; it also raises crucial questions regarding the potential biological roles of the enhancer transcription process and non-coding enhancer RNAs. Here, we review research progress in this field and discuss several important, unresolved questions regarding the roles and mechanisms of enhancers in gene regulation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Science. 2010 Dec 24;330(6012):1775-87 - PubMed
    1. Nat Genet. 2007 Mar;39(3):311-8 - PubMed
    1. Cell. 2013 Jan 17;152(1-2):157-71 - PubMed
    1. Nat Genet. 2006 Nov;38(11):1289-97 - PubMed
    1. Nat Genet. 2012 Jan 08;44(2):148-56 - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources