Mezenkimal epitelyal dönüşümde yer alan olası uzun protein kodlamayan RNAların tanımlanması ve anotasyonu

Mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) is a key process of multicellular organisms, involved in development and wound healing, as well as coopted by cancer metastasis. As recent studies have shown, the regulation of MET is a more involved cellular reprogramming event than removal or inhibition of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) promoting elements, but the exact mechanics are poorly studied as of yet. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), RNA molecules that function in biological pathways independently of translation, are known to be involved in cellular reprogramming events. To bolster the limited information available on MET, we applied computational analysis and network construction methods to MET RNA-seq data to identify any previously unannotated lncRNA candidates, and to predict their potential biological functions. As a result, we have identified 608 transcripts as previously unannotated lncRNAs. Furthermore, we have shown that a number of them show meaningful expression patterns, such as timepoint specific expression, or upregulation during MET compared to mesenchymal phenotype. We have also constructed gene co-expression modules to identify the biological niches of the lncRNAs via enrichment of gene ontology terms of previously annotated genes in the modules. We have shown that previously unannotated lncRNAs are likely involved in crucial cellular reprogramming events such as chromatin remodeling or cellular localization.