How are lincRNA affecting the regulation of gene expression?
lincRNA may function either as modulators of epigenetic mark deposition or as endogenous antagonists for microRNA binding. A lincRNA, linc-RoR, may function as a key competing endogenous RNA to link the network of miRNAs and core TFs, e.g., Oct4, Sox2, and Nanog. Mdig is involved in the regulation of H3K9me3 to influence the heterochromatin structure of the genome and the expression of genes important for cell growth or transformation. Observed biases in lincRNA genomic locations and expression profiles are consistent with some of these lincRNAs being involved in the regulation of neighboring protein-coding genes with developmental functions.