A STORY OF GROWING CONFUSION:GENES AND THEIR REGULATION

摘要

High-throughput experiments have produced convicing evidence for an extensive contri-bution of diverse classes of RNAs in the expression of genetic information. Instead of asimple arrangement of mostly protein-coding genes, the human transcriptome features acomplex arrangement of overlapping transcripts, many of which do not code for proteinsat all, while others "sample" exons from several different "genes". The complexity of thetranscriptome and the prevalence of noncoding transcripts forces us to reconsider boththe concept of the "gene" itself and our understanding of the mechanisms that regulate"gene expression".