Cryptic unstable transcript

Cryptic unstable transcripts (CUTs) are RNA molecules arising from the transcription of intergenic regions in the genome. They exist in most eukaryotic organisms and are generally rapidly degraded by the exosome complex or other exonucleases. ^[1][2]

Even though the importance of these unstable RNAs is still unknown, thousands of loci leading to the generation of CUTs have been described in the yeast genome ^[3][4] and similar RNA species have been detected in human cells.^[5]

References

1. ^ Thompson DM and Parker R (2007). "Cytoplasmic decay of intergenic transcripts in Saccharomyces cerevisiae". Mol Cell Biol 27 (27): 92–101. doi:10.1128/MCB.01023-06. PMC 1800667. PMID 17074811. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1800667. 
2. ^ Thiebaut et al.; Kisseleva-Romanova, E; Rougemaille, M; Boulay, J; Libri, D (2006). "Transcription Termination and Nuclear Degradation of Cryptic Unstable Transcripts: A Role for the Nrd1-Nab3 Pathway in Genome Surveillance". Molecular Cell 23 (23): 853–864. doi:10.1016/j.molcel.2006.07.029. PMID 16973437. 
3. ^ Wyers F, Rougemaille M, Badis G, et al (June 2005). "Cryptic pol II transcripts are degraded by a nuclear quality control pathway involving a new poly(A) polymerase". Cell 121 (5): 725–37. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2005.04.030. PMID 15935759. 
4. ^ Neil H, Malabat C, d'Aubenton-Carafa Y, Xu Z, Steinmetz LM, Jacquier A (February 2009). "Widespread bidirectional promoters are the major source of cryptic transcripts in yeast". Nature 457 (7232): 1038–42. doi:10.1038/nature07747. PMID 19169244. 
5. ^ Preker P, Nielsen J, Kammler S, et al (December 2008). "RNA exosome depletion reveals transcription upstream of active human promoters". Science 322 (5909): 1851–4. doi:10.1126/science.1164096. PMID 19056938.