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Lifting the veil on the transcriptome

Kevin P Callahan1 and J S Butler1,2*

Author Affiliations

1 Departments of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Rochester Medical Center, Elmwood Avenue, Rochester, NY 14642, USA

2 Microbiology and Immunology, University of Rochester Medical Center, Elmwood Avenue, Rochester, NY 14642, USA

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Genome Biology 2008, 9:218 doi:10.1186/gb-2008-9-4-218

Published: 24 April 2008

Abstract

Inhibition of the cellular RNA surveillance system in Arabidopsis thaliana results in the accumulation of thousands of transcripts arising from annotated and unannotated regions of the genome. This normally hidden transcriptome is replete with noncoding RNAs with the potential to regulate wide-ranging physiological activities.