mRNA Metabolism in Cardiac Development and Disease: Life After Transcription

• Published in: Physiological reviews 2020-04, Vol.100 (2), p.673-694
• Main Authors: Gao, Chen, Wang, Yibin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alternative splicing; Animals; Coronary artery disease; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; Gene regulation; Genomes; Heart - embryology; Heart diseases; Heart Diseases - drug therapy; Heart Diseases - genetics; Heart Diseases - metabolism; Heart Diseases - pathology; Humans; Metabolism; Morphogenesis; Myocardium - metabolism; Myocardium - pathology; Post-transcription; Review; RNA modification; RNA processing; RNA Processing, Post-Transcriptional; RNA Stability; RNA, Messenger - genetics; RNA, Messenger - metabolism; Transcription, Genetic
• ISSN: 0031-9333; 1522-1210
• DOI: 10.1152/physrev.00007.2019

The central dogma of molecular biology illustrates the importance of mRNAs as critical mediators between genetic information encoded at the DNA level and proteomes/metabolomes that determine the diverse functional outcome at the cellular and organ levels. Although the total number of protein-producing (coding) genes in the mammalian genome is ~20,000, it is evident that the intricate processes of cardiac development and the highly regulated physiological regulation in the normal heart, as well as the complex manifestation of pathological remodeling in a diseased heart, would require a much higher degree of complexity at the transcriptome level and beyond. Indeed, in addition to an extensive regulatory scheme implemented at the level of transcription, the complexity of transcript processing following transcription is dramatically increased. RNA processing includes post-transcriptional modification, alternative splicing, editing and transportation, ribosomal loading, and degradation. While transcriptional control of cardiac genes has been a major focus of investigation in recent decades, a great deal of progress has recently been made in our understanding of how post-transcriptional regulation of mRNA contributes to transcriptome complexity. In this review, we highlight some of the key molecular processes and major players in RNA maturation and post-transcriptional regulation. In addition, we provide an update to the recent progress made in the discovery of RNA processing regulators implicated in cardiac development and disease. While post-transcriptional modulation is a complex and challenging problem to study, recent technological advancements are paving the way for a new era of exciting discoveries and potential clinical translation in the context of cardiac biology and heart disease.