Fewer Genes, More Noncoding RNA

Recent studies showing that most "messenger" RNAs do not encode proteins finally explain the long-standing discrepancy between the small number of protein-coding genes found in vertebrate genomes and the much larger and ever-increasing number of polyadenylated transcripts identified by tag-sampling or microarray-based methods. Exploring the role and diversity of these numerous noncoding RNAs now constitutes a main challenge in transcription research.