ArticleFrontiers in genetics2015
Non-coding RNA: what is functional and what is junk?
Article in Frontiers in genetics, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 500 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
500 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 902 citations in OpenAlex.
- Non-coding RNA profiles associated with equine osteoarthritis: a systematic review.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2026Pooled it
- Genomic indicators of gene function: a systematic assessment of the human genome.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2026Article
- Bramble: projection of spliced genomic alignments into transcriptomic space for improved transcript quantification.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- The molecular basis of transcription initiation by RNA polymerase II.Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology · 2026Review
- DREAMS illuminates spatial DNA and RNA modification landscapes.Nature cell biology · 2026Article
- Adaptation of Non-Invasive Cancer Cells to 3D Collagen I Microenvironment Induces Transcriptional Reprogramming Accompanied by a More Complex RNA Landscape.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Human vault RNAs exhibit diverse expression patterns and inter-locus compensation.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- LncRNA-MSTRG.16919.1 regulates the proliferation of BHV-1 in MDBK cells through TAK1/TAB1/TAB2/TAB3 complexes.BMC veterinary research · 2026Article
- Rapid evolution of lncRNAs introduces novel regulatory inputs into ancestral cancer pathways.Science advances · 2026Article
- At the Edge of Survival: Exploring the Frontiers of Tardigrade Extreme Stress Tolerance.Molecular ecology · 2026Review
- Profiling active RNA polymerase II transcription start sites from total RNA by capped small RNA sequencing (csRNA-seq).Nature protocols · 2026Review
- Extracellular ssDNA fromInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Causal variants in animal genomes: approaches to identification, phenotypic impact, and implications for selective breeding.BMC genomics · 2026Review
- Genetic and functional insights into long noncoding RNAs in schizophrenia.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- sc-rDSeq: a robust and cost-effective full-length total RNA sequencing method for single cells reveals multilayered heterogeneity in drug-resistant lung cancer cells.Nucleic acids research · 2026Article
- Profiling of Small Noncoding RNAs During Bovine Conceptus Elongation Identifies Let-7 as a Candidate Regulator of Proliferation and Differentiation.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Long-read assembly reveals vast transcriptional complexity in the placenta associated with metabolic and endocrine function.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Integration of epigenetics into ecotoxicology: insights and fundamental research needs.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Review
- Tabula Sapiens reveals the non-coding RNA landscape across 22 human organs and tissues.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Antisense oligonucleotides: targeting oncogenic long non-coding RNAs for cancer therapy.Biotechnology letters · 2026Review
440 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The genomes of large multicellular eukaryotes are mostly comprised of non-protein coding DNA. Although there has been much agreement that a small fraction of these genomes has important biological functions, there has been much debate as to whether the rest contributes to development and/or homeostasis. Much of the speculation has centered on the genomic regions that are transcribed into RNA at some low level. Unfortunately these RNAs have been arbitrarily assigned various names, such as "intergenic RNA," "long non-coding RNAs" etc., which have led to some confusion in the field. Many researchers believe that these transcripts represent a vast, unchartered world of functional non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), simply because they exist. However, there are reasons to question this Panglossian view because it ignores our current understanding of how evolution shapes eukaryotic genomes and how the gene expression machinery works in eukaryotic cells. Although there are undoubtedly many more functional ncRNAs yet to be discovered and characterized, it is also likely that many of these transcripts are simply junk. Here, we discuss how to determine whether any given ncRNA has a function. Importantly, we advocate that in the absence of any such data, the appropriate null hypothesis is that the RNA in question is junk.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.