Noncoding RNA Regulation of Hormonal and Metabolic Systems in the Fruit Fly Drosophila

Ki-Kei Chan; Ting-Fung Chan; William Bendena; Jerome H L Hui

doi:10.3390/metabo13020152

Noncoding RNA Regulation of Hormonal and Metabolic Systems in the Fruit Fly Drosophila

Metabolites. 2023 Jan 19;13(2):152. doi: 10.3390/metabo13020152.

Authors

Ki-Kei Chan^{1

2

3}, Ting-Fung Chan¹, William Bendena⁴, Jerome H L Hui^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
² Simon F.S. Li Marine Science Laboratory, School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
³ Institute of Environment, Energy and Sustainability, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
⁴ Department of Biology, Queen's University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada.

Abstract

The importance of RNAs is commonly recognised thanks to protein-coding RNAs, whereas non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) were conventionally regarded as 'junk'. In the last decade, ncRNAs' significance and roles are becoming noticeable in various biological activities, including those in hormonal and metabolic regulation. Among the ncRNAs: microRNA (miRNA) is a small RNA transcript with ~20 nucleotides in length; long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) is an RNA transcript with >200 nucleotides; and circular RNA (circRNA) is derived from back-splicing of pre-mRNA. These ncRNAs can regulate gene expression levels at epigenetic, transcriptional, and post-transcriptional levels through various mechanisms in insects. A better understanding of these crucial regulators is essential to both basic and applied entomology. In this review, we intend to summarise and discuss the current understanding and knowledge of miRNA, lncRNA, and circRNA in the best-studied insect model, the fruit fly Drosophila.

Keywords: Drosophila; circRNA; endocrinology; hormone; lncRNA; metabolism; miRNA; ncRNA.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Hong Kong Research Grant General Research Fund GRF (14100420) and CUHK Direct Grant (4053489, 4053547). KKC was supported by a postgraduate studentship provided by The Chinese University of Hong Kong.