Expression Profile of Long Non-Coding RNAs during Early Postnatal Development of Mouse Spinal Cord

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a diverse class of transcripts that are >200 nucleotides long and lack significant protein-coding potential. LncRNAs are emerging as major regulators of gene expression networks in various physiological and pathological processes. Interestingly, many lncRNAs show tissue-specific expression, for example, in the nervous system. Although lncRNAs have been suggested to play key roles in the brain, most functions of neural lncRNAs remain poorly understood. In order to provide a catalog of lncRNA changes that occur in spinal cord during early postnatal development, RNA from mouse spinal cord was sequenced at different time points in the first week after birth (postnatal day 1 and postnatal day 7). Two hundred and ninty-six differentially expressed lncRNAs (FDR < 0.05) were identified in the resulting dataset. Altered transcripts were associated with several biological processes including myelination, neural differentiation, and glial cell development. PCR validation confirmed differential expression of select lncRNAs (i.e., Cerox1, lncOL3, Neat1, and Sox2ot). Additionally, analysis of circular RNAs (circRNAs), another class of non-coding RNA with regulatory potency, pointed out a number of circRNAs associated with spinal cord development. These data can be used as a resource for future studies on transcriptional changes during early postnatal nervous system development and studies of disorders that affect the spinal cord, e.g., spinal muscular atrophy.