Non-coding RNAs are critical molecules that constitute a substantial amount of the transcriptome. We have witnessed an ever-increasing repository of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) in the last decade, especially with the large scale application of high throughput sequencing technologies. These ncRNAs include, but are not limited to, miRNAs, siRNAs, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), circular intronic RNAs (ciRNAs) and circular RNAs (circRNAs) originated from back-spliced exons. ncRNAs have been demonstrated to involved in all important biological processes and human diseases. However, our understanding of these ncRNAs are still at the initial stages, especially for newly found ncRNAs such as lncRNAs, ciRNAs and circRNAs.

We thus would like to propose a Research Topic in Frontiers in Genetics to demonstrate recent progresses in the area of non-coding RNAs. The potential areas to include in the Research Topic include:
• What are the functions of ncRNAs?
• How do ncRNAs realize their functions?
• How are ncRNAs produced?
• How do you identify ncRNAs from high throughput sequencing data sets?
• How to predict the secondary structures of ncRNAs?
• What are the conservation patterns of ncRNAs?
• How to predict the potential functions of ncRNAs?
• What are the interactions between ncRNAs and other molecules?
• What are the mutations or editing events in ncRNAs and their significance in human diseases.

The Research Topic will include research of ncRNAs that are dedicated to demonstrating the mechanisms of biological processes and/or human diseases; identification and analysis of ncRNAs from high throughput sequencing profiles; secondary structures of ncRNAs; conservation analysis of ncRNAs; computational methods related to ncRNAs; the interactions between ncRNAs; the interactions between ncRNAs and DNAs; the interactions between ncRNAs and proteins; databases of ncRNAs and other areas related to ncRNAs.
The newly generated high throughput sequencing data are increasing in an exponential way. Thus, a critical issue is how to accurately and efficiently identify ncRNAs from the vast amount of sequencing data, and to analyze or to predict the biological and/or medical significances of the ncRNAs. The secondary structures of ncRNAs often play important roles in their functions. ncRNAs often interact with other ncRNAs or other types of molecules, such as DNAs and proteins. Thus, complex interaction networks of ncRNAs are often important for realizing functions of ncRNAs. After ncRNAs are identified, more challenging work are still needed to verify the functions of ncRNAs in the biological or medical contexts.

Research Articles and Reviews dedicated to the mechanisms of ncRNAs in biological processes and human diseases, large scale analysis of ncRNAs using high throughput sequencing technologies; conservation analysis of ncRNAs; interaction networks among ncRNAs and between ncRNAs and other molecules are strongly encouraged. Novel methods for identifying of ncRNAs, for predicting secondary structures of ncRNAs, for inferring potential functions of ncRNAs through large scale analysis of interaction networks of ncRNAs and for accurately and efficiently quantifying the expression levels of ncRNAs are expected. Finally, systematic organization and interesting presentation of ncRNAs in web-based databases are also considered in the current Topic.

Keywords: non-coding RNA (ncRNA), microRNA, long non-coding RNA, circular RNA, transcriptome

Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.