Natural antisense transcript of natriuretic peptide precursor A (NPPA): structural organization and modulation of NPPA expression

摘要

BackgroundMammalian transcriptome contains a large proportion of diverse and structurally complex noncoding RNAs. One class of such RNAs, natural antisense transcripts (NATs), are derived from the opposite strand of many protein-coding genes. Although the exact structure and functional relevance of most of the NATs is unknown, their emerging role as gene expression regulators raises the hypothesis that NATs might contribute to development of complex human disorders. The goal of our study was to investigate the involvement of NATs in regulation of candidate genes for blood pressure.