Humans and worms show striking phenotypic differences despite the fact that both genomes encode a comparable number of protein coding genes (~20,000). These observations suggest that biological complexity cannot be accounted for by protein coding genes alone. Emerging data from different areas of investigation suggest that the information which programs biological complexity is entwined in noncoding regulatory RNA. Powerful novel sequencing technologies have enabled the discovery of an entire new world of long and short noncoding RNAs...

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