lncRNA in worms – Time to meet the neighbors

Long noncoding RNA or lncRNA have been in the spotlight in recent years, due to their abundance in the human genome and the crucial regulatory roles they play in diverse biological processes. The mode of action by which lncRNA regulate biological processes is not fully understood however, in many cases it was found that they function by regulating the expression of neighboring genes in cis. To date, lncRNA have received little attention from the Caenorhabditis elegans research community. In particular, lncRNA functions in cis have not been thoroughly investigated. Here we review the known functions of lncRNA in mammals and C. elegans. To promote lncRNA studies in C. elegans, we provide a catalog of lncRNA neighbor genes in C. elegans, their human homologs and the biological categories they belong to. We propose that C. elegans could be a powerful model for studying these enigmatic non-protein coding genes.