Age-dependent differential expression profile of a novel intergenic long noncoding RNA in rat brain

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are ≥200 nt long, abundant class of non-protein coding RNAs that are transcribed in complex, sense- and antisense patterns from the intergenic and intronic regions of mammalian genome. Mammalian central nervous system constitutes the largest repertoire of noncoding transcripts that are known to be expressed in developmentally regulated and cell-type specific manners. Although many lncRNAs, functioning in the brain development and diseases are known, none involved in brain aging has been reported so far. Here, we report involvement of a novel, repeat sequence (simple repeats and SINES)-containing, trans-spliced, long intergenic non-protein coding RNA (lincRNA), named as LINC-RBE (rat brain expressed transcript) involved in maturation and aging of mammalian brain. The LINC-RBE is strongly expressed in the rat brain and the upstream/downstream sequences of its DNA in the chromosome 5 contain binding sites for many cell growth, survival and development-specific transcriptional factors. Through RT-PCR and RNA in situ hybridization, LINC-RBE was found to be expressed in an age-dependent manner with significantly higher level of expression in the brain of adult (16 weeks) compared to both immature (4 weeks) and old (70 weeks) rats. Moreover, the expression pattern of the LINC-RBE showed distinct association with the specific neuro-anatomical regions, cell types and sub-cellular compartments of the rat brain in an age-related manner. Thus, its expression increased from immature stage to adulthood and declined further in old age. This is a first-time report of involvement of an intergenic repeat sequence-containing lncRNA in different regions of the rat brain in an age-dependent manner.