Metabolism of non-coding RNA

The term non-coding is commonly employed for RNA that does not encode a protein, but this does not mean that such RNAs do not contain information nor have function. There is considerable evidence that the majority of mammalian and other complex organism's genomes is transcribed into non-coding RNAs, many of which are alternatively spliced and/or processed into smaller products. Around 98% of all transcriptional output in humans is non-coding RNA. RNA-mediated gene regulation is widespread in higher eukaryotes and complex genetic phenomena like RNA interference are mediated by such RNAs. These non-coding RNAs are a growing list and include rRNAs, tRNAs, snRNAs, snoRNAs siRNAs, 7SL RNA, 7SK RNA, the RNA component of RNase P RNA, the RNA component of RNase MRP, and the RNA component of telomerase.

Summary from Reactome (R-HSA-194441), read 2026-09-23.