AUTHOR=Delihas Nicholas 

TITLE=Birth of a Regulatory Long Non-coding RNA/Gene, linc-UR-UB

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Genetics

VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/genetics/articles/10.3389/fgene.2021.661425

DOI=10.3389/fgene.2021.661425

ISSN=1664-8021

ABSTRACT=The origin of genes has been a major topic of research for many years, albeit in some cases it has been a difficult process to elucidate. Insightful is a recent publication that experimentally shows how one lincRNA gene, linc-UR-UB was born.  This gene is regulated in a complex manner in male germ cells during spermatogenesis and is believed to participate in the regulation of levels of the ubiquitin specific peptidase USP18 mRNA.  .  The process of formation of linc-UR-UB appears relatively simple. It involves a transcription read through from an upstream gene to a downstream functional element, the USP18 3' UTR sequence.  This small element also shares the same sequence as the 3’ ends of the lincRNA FAM247 family genes. In addition to linc-UR-UB, it is possible that other genes formed in a similar fashion that involves a genomic sequence read through to a functional element.