Impact of Noncoding Part of the Genome on the Proteome Plasticity of the Eukaryotic Cell

Abstract

Recent studies revealed that about 80% of the eukaryotic genome is biochemically active; it produces not solely mRNA but also a large number of noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs). Thus, a large fraction of “ribonome” (the total cellular complement of RNAs and their regulatory factors) of the cell consists of a variety of noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs), while mRNAs occupy only a small part of it. It is well known that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are involved in the regulation of protein-coding gene expression by altering the chromatin structure, transcription regulation, and pre-mRNA splicing. MicroRNAs and small interfering RNAs trigger the RNA interference mechanism involved in the transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. However, our knowledge of the role of noncoding part of the genome in proteome diversification and plasticity is scarce. In this mini-review, we discuss new data obtained over the past few years, which change our view of the role of noncoding part of the genome in the cell proteome formation.