This contributed volume offers a comprehensive and detailed overview of the various aspects of long non-coding RNAs and discusses their emerging significance. Written by leading experts in the field, it motivates young researchers around the globe, and offers graduate and postgraduate students fascinating insights into genes and their regulation in eukaryotes and higher organisms.

The growth of human population has increased the demand for improved yield and quality of crops and horticultural plants. However, plant productivity continues to be threatened by stresses such as heat, cold, drought, heavy metals, UV radiations, bacterial and fungal pathogens, and insect pests. Long noncoding RNAs are associated with various developmental pathways, regulatory systems, abiotic and biotic stress responses and signaling, and can provide an alternative strategy for stress management in plants. Long Noncoding RNAs in Plants: Roles in development and stress provides the most recent advances in LncRNAs, including identification, characterization, and their potential applications and uses. Introductory chapters include the basic features and brief history of development of lncRNAs studies in plants. The book then provides the knowledge about the lncRNAs in various important agricultural and horticultural crops such as cereals, legumes, fruits, vegetables, and fiber crop cotton, and their roles and applications in abiotic and biotic stress management. - Includes the latest advances and research in long noncoding RNAs in plants - Provides alternative strategies for abiotic and biotic stress management in horticultural plants and agricultural crops - Focuses on the application and uses of long noncoding RNAs

Cancer and Noncoding RNAs offers an in-depth exploration of noncoding RNAs and their role in epigenetic regulation of complex human disease, most notably cancer. In addition to examining microRNAs, this volume provides a unique evaluation of more recently profiled noncoding RNAs now implicated in carcinogenesis, including lncRNAs, piRNAs, circRNAs, and tRNAs, identifying differences in function between these noncoding RNAs and how they interact with the rest of the epigenome. A broad range of chapters from experts in the field detail epigenetic regulation of various cancer types, along with recent next generation sequencing technologies, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and bioinformatics approaches. This book will help researchers in genomic medicine and cancer biology better understand the role of noncoding RNAs in epigenetics, aiding in the development of useful biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis and new RNA-based disease therapies. - Provides a comprehensive analysis of noncoding RNAs implicated in epigenetic regulation of gene expression and chromatin dynamics - Educates researchers and graduate students by highlighting, in addition to miRNAs, a range of noncoding RNAs newly associated with carcinogenesis - Applies current knowledge of noncoding RNAs and epigenomics towards developing cancer and RNA-based disease therapies - Features contributions by leading experts in the field

Computational Non-coding RNA Biology is a resource for the computation of non-coding RNAs. The book covers computational methods for the identification and quantification of non-coding RNAs, including miRNAs, tasiRNAs, phasiRNAs, lariat originated circRNAs and back-spliced circRNAs, the identification of miRNA/siRNA targets, and the identification of mutations and editing sites in miRNAs. The book introduces basic ideas of computational methods, along with their detailed computational steps, a critical component in the development of high throughput sequencing technologies for identifying different classes of non-coding RNAs and predicting the possible functions of these molecules. Finding, quantifying, and visualizing non-coding RNAs from high throughput sequencing datasets at high volume is complex. Therefore, it is usually possible for biologists to complete all of the necessary steps for analysis. - Presents a comprehensive resource of computational methods for the identification and quantification of non-coding RNAs - Introduces 23 practical computational pipelines for various topics of non-coding RNAs - Provides a guide to assist biologists and other researchers dealing with complex datasets - Introduces basic computational methods and provides guidelines for their replication by researchers - Offers a solution to researchers approaching large and complex sequencing datasets

General inspection of a role performed in the cell by RNAs allows us to distinguish three major groups of transcripts: I. protein-coding mRNAs, II. non-coding housekeeping and III. regulatory RNAs. The housekeeping RNAs include RNA classes that are generally, constitutively expressed and whose presence is required for normal function and viability of the cells. On the other hand, a group of regulatory RNAs includes RNA species that are expressed at certain stages of organism development or cell differentiation or as a response to external stimuli and can affect expression of other genes on the levels of transcription or translation. Non-coding RNA transcripts form a heterogeneous class of RNAs that can not be characterized by a single specific function. Initially, the term non-coding RNA (ncRNA) was used primarily to describe polyadenylated and a capped eukaryotic RNAs transcribed by RNA polymerase II, but lacking long open reading frames. Now, this definition can be extended to cover all RNA transcripts that do not show protein-coding capacity and is sometimes used to describe any RNA that does not encode protein, including introns. This book is an in-depth look at the function of Non-Coding RNAs and their relationship to Molecular Biology and Molecular Biology.

The discovery of microRNAs and its role as gene expression regulators in human carcinogenesis represents one of the most important scientific achievements of the last decade. More recently, other non-coding RNAs have been discovered and its implications in cancer are emerging as well, suggesting a broader than anticipated involvement of the non-coding genome in cancer. Moreover, completely new and unexpected functions for microRNAs are being revealed, leading to the identification of new anticancer molecular targets. This book represents a comprehensive guide on non-coding RNAs and cancer, spanning from its role as cancer biomarkers, to providing the most useful bioinformatic tools, to presenting some of the most relevant discoveries, which indicates how these fascinating molecules act as fine orchestrators of cancer biology.