Fig. 2. Paradigms for how lncRNAs function. Recent studies have identified a variety of regulatory paradigms for lncRNAs function, which are highlighted here. (I) Transcriptional interference: induce chromatin remodeling and histone modification (1). (II) Gene post-transcription regulation. lncRNAs hybridize to the mRNAs by base-pairing with the complementary sequence to blocked the splice sites of spliceosome, thus resulting in alternatively spliced transcripts (2), or translation inhibition (3), or mRNA degeneration (4). lncRNAs allow Dicer to generate endogenous siRNAs (5). (III) Interaction with other biological molecules. Interact with proteins, modulate the activity of the protein by binding to specific protein partners (6), or alter the protein location in the targets position (7), s
erve as a scaffold to allows the forming of larger RNA–protein complex (8); interact with miRNAs to sponge the function of miRNAs (9)
