Little is known how long intervening noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs) are involved in skeletal myogenesis.
Researchers describe the discovery of Linc-YY1 from the promoter of the transcription factor (TF) Yin Yang 1 (YY1) gene.
They demonstrate that Linc-YY1 is dynamically regulated during myogenesis in vitro and in vivo. Gain or loss of function of Linc-YY1 in C2C12 myoblasts or muscle satellite cells alters myogenic differentiation and in injured muscles has an impact on the course of regeneration.
Linc-YY1 interacts with YY1 through its middle domain, to evict YY1/Polycomb repressive complex (PRC2) from target promoters, thus activating the gene expression in trans. In addition, Linc-YY1 also regulates PRC2-independent function of YY1.
Authors also identify a human Linc-YY1 orthologue with conserved function and show that many human and mouse TF genes are associated with lincRNAs that may modulate their activity.
Altogether, authors show that Linc-YY1 regulates skeletal myogenesis and uncover a previously unappreciated mechanism of gene regulation by lincRNA.
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/151211/ncomms10026/full/ncomms10026.html
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