Concept and Aim of the Research Project
Recent transcriptome analyses have revealed that large portions of the mammalian genomes produce numerous numbers of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), which play important regulatory roles in various biological events. Just like proteins, ncRNAs are extremely diverse and are considered to possess their own characteristics that determine their specific functions. However, ncRNAs have so far been collectively defined as the RNAs that are unlikely to code polypeptides, in a manner unlinked to their own features. To accelerate our understanding of ncRNAs, this research project aims to systematically characterize and classify the features of individual ncRNAs, toward our ultimate goal to establish a new system of ncRNA categorization termed “non-coding RNA neo-taxonomy.” For details of this concept, please refer to Hirose et al. (EMBO Rep, 2014).