Advances in genomics technology over recent years have led to the surprising discovery that the genome is far more pervasively transcribed than was previously appreciated.Much of the newly-discovered transcriptome appears to represent long non-coding RNA（lncRNA）,a heterogeneous group of largely uncharacterised transcripts.Understanding the biological function of these molecules represents a major challenge and in this review we discuss some of the progress made to date.One major theme of lncRNA biology seems to be the existence of a network of interactions with microRNA（miRNA） pathways.lnc RNA has been shown to act as both a source and an inhibitory regulator of mi RNA.At the transcriptional level,a model is emerging whereby lnc RNA bridges DNA and protein by binding to chromatin and serving as a scaffold for modifying protein complexes.Such a mechanism can bridge promoters to enhancers or enhancer-like non-coding genes by regulating chromatin looping,as well as conferring specificity on histone modifying complexes by directing them to specific loci.
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