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Updated: Feb 8, 2026

RNA Pull-down Procedure to Identify RNA Targets of a Long Non-coding RNA
Published on: April 10, 2018
A novel long non-coding RNA from NBL2 pericentromeric macrosatellite forms a perinucleolar aggregate structure in
Gabrijela Dumbovic1, Josep Biayna1,2, Jordi Banús1
1Program of Predictive and Personalized Medicine of Cancer (PMPPC), Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP), Can Ruti Campus, Ctra Can Ruti, camí de les escoles s/n, Badalona, Barcelona 08916, Spain.
Abstract:
Primate-specific NBL2 macrosatellite is hypomethylated in several types of tumors, yet the consequences of this DNA hypomethylation remain unknown. We show that NBL2 conserved repeats are close to the centromeres of most acrocentric chromosomes. NBL2 associates with the perinucleolar region and undergoes severe demethylation in a subset of colorectal cancer (CRC). Upon DNA hypomethylation and histone acetylation, NBL2 repeats are transcribed in tumor cell lines and primary CRCs. NBL2 monomers exhibit promoter activity, and are contained within novel, non-polyA antisense lncRNAs, which we designated TNBL (Tumor-associated NBL2 transcript). TNBL is stable throughout the mitotic cycle, and in interphase nuclei preferentially forms a perinucleolar aggregate in the proximity of a subset of NBL2 loci. TNBL aggregates interact with the SAM68 perinucleolar body in a mirror-image cancer specific perinucleolar structure. TNBL binds with high affinity to several proteins involved in nuclear functions and RNA metabolism, such as CELF1 and NPM1. Our data unveil novel DNA and RNA structural features of a non-coding macrosatellite frequently altered in cancer.
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