Community Curated Database For LncRNA

A wiki-style database hopes to serve as an online encyclopedia of lncRNA by and for the scientific community.

AsianScientist (Dec. 18, 2014) – Scientists have set up a long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) database aimed at harnessing the collective knowledge of the scientific community. This study has been published in Nucleic Acids Research.

LncRNAs are RNAs that do not code for proteins but are nonetheless actively transcribed in human genome. In recent years, it has been recognized that they perform significant roles in a large variety of biological processes. The dysregulation of lncRNA expression is highly correlated with human cancer, neurological disorders, and many other human diseases.

However, only fewer than 200 lncRNAs have been functionally annotated, whereas more than 100,000 lncRNA transcripts have been detected, posing significant challenges in systematic investigation on lncRNAs.

To tap into the global scientific community’s understanding of lncRNA, Professor Zhang Zhang’s Lab from Beijing Institute of Genomics of Chinese Academy of Sciences has constructed a Wiki-based database for community curation of human long non-coding RNAs in collaboration with Professor Vladimir Bajic from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.

Called LncRNAWiki, the database enables any registered user to collect and share their knowledge on human lncRNAs. To date, the researchers have obtained 105,255 non-redundant lncRNA transcripts and curated about 100 lncRNAs. To attract more participation from the scientific community, community-curated contributions are quantified and rewarded by giving explicit authorship.

LncRNAWiki provides an easy-to-use and publicly-editable platform for users to curate an existing lncRNA or add a newly identified lncRNA and is hoped to serve as an online encyclopedia of lncRNA by and for the scientific community.

The article can be found at: Ma et al. (2014) LncRNAWiki: Harnessing Community Knowledge in Collaborative Curation of Human Long Non-coding RNAs.

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Source: Chinese Academy of Sciences; Photo: LncRNAWiki.
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