Research work · 2015
RNA biology: future perspectives
David Elliott, Michael Ladomery
Molecular Biology of RNA
Abstract
This chapter considers the complexities of chromatin modifications and epigenetics, the regulation of transcription, and cotranscriptional and post-transcriptional processes. It reviews some of the topical areas of RNA biology. It begins by describing the explosion of transcriptomics data and the opportunities and challenges that this brings. It also looks at the growing prominence of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) and describes the use of CRISPR, an RNA-guided genome editing system that will revolutionize both basic and applied research. The chapter discusses transcriptome sequences that are derived from copying RNA sequences into cDNA using reverse transcriptase, followed by sequencing. It mentions the advent of next-generation sequencing (NGS), which is known as a key technological development.