non-coding RNA Review Epigenetic Regulation of Alternative Splicing: How LncRNAs Tailor the Message Giuseppina Pisignano 1,* and Michael Ladomery 2,* 1 Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, UK 2 Faculty of Health and Applied Sciences, University of the West of England, Coldharbour Lane, Frenchay, Bristol BS16 1QY, UK * Correspondence:
[email protected] (G.P.);
[email protected] (M.L.) Abstract: Alternative splicing is a highly fine-tuned regulated process and one of the main drivers of proteomic diversity across eukaryotes. The vast majority of human multi-exon genes is alternatively spliced in a cell type- and tissue-specific manner, and defects in alternative splicing can dramatically alter RNA and protein functions and lead to disease. The eukaryotic genome is also intensively transcribed into long and short non-coding RNAs which account for up to 90% of the entire tran- scriptome. Over the years, lncRNAs have received considerable attention as important players in the regulation of cellular processes including alternative splicing. In this review, we focus on recent discoveries that show how lncRNAs contribute significantly to the regulation of alternative splicing and explore how they are able to shape the expression of a diverse set of splice isoforms through several mechanisms. With the increasing number of lncRNAs being discovered and characterized, the contribution of lncRNAs to the regulation of alternative splicing is likely to grow significantly. Keywords: long non-coding RNAs; alternative splicing; splicing factors; post-transcriptional regulation Citation: Pisignano, G.; Ladomery, 1. Introduction M. Epigenetic Regulation of In the late 1970s, researchers were interested in gaining a better understanding of Alternative Splicing: How LncRNAs the mechanisms of adenoviral gene expression when they noticed something unusual, Tailor the Message.