Studies of the host response to viral infection have historically focused on protein - coding genes, thus our understanding of how the non-protein-coding transcriptome, including both viral - and host -
derived noncoding RNAs, impacts host - virus interactions is limited.
The researchers detected this SMN long
noncoding RNA, or lnc - RNA (pronounced «link RNA») for short, in human embryonic kidney cells, brain cell samples and neurons
derived from the stem cells of healthy people and those with spinal muscular atrophy type I and II.