Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) has become a research hotspot in recent years. LncRNAs are actively transcribed in human genome and 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 less 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.

Recently, ZHANG Zhang’s Lab from Beijing Institute of Genomics of Chinese Academy of Sciences in collaboration with Prof. Vladimir Bajic from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, constructed a Wiki-based database for community curation of human long non-coding RNAs—LncRNAWiki.

LncRNAWiki is constructed based on Wiki which enables any registered user to collect and share his/her 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, which will make LncRNAWiki an online encyclopaedia of lncRNA by and for the scientific community.

The work was supported by Chinese Academy of Sciences and National Natural Science Foundation of China.

References:  MA Lina, LI Ang, ZOU Dong, XU Xingjian, XIA Lin, YU Jun, Vladimir B. Bajic,and ZHANG Zhang. LncRNAWiki: harnessing community knowledge in collaborative curation of human long non-coding RNAs Nucl. Acids Res. (2014) doi: 10.1093/nar/gku1167