Beyond microRNA – Novel RNAs derived from small non-coding RNA and their implication in cancer

Elena S. Martens-Uzunova, Michael Olvedy, Guido Jenster
2013 Cancer Letters  
Over the recent years, Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies targeting the microRNA transcriptome revealed the existence of many different RNA fragments derived from small RNA species other than microRNA. Although initially discarded as RNA turnover artifacts, accumulating evidence suggests that RNA fragments derived from small nucleolar RNA (snoRNA) and transfer RNA (tRNA) are not just random degradation products but rather stable entities, which may have functional activity in the
more » ... al and malignant cell. This review summarizes new findings describing the detection and alterations in expression of snoRNA-derived (sdRNA) and tRNA-derived (tRF) RNAs. We focus on the possible interactions of sdRNAs and tRFs with the canonical microRNA pathways in the cell and present current hypotheses on the function of these RNAs.
doi:10.1016/j.canlet.2012.11.058 pmid:23376637 fatcat:jtrfu2uvr5bx3fbvgdvd4xbaom