Beyond ribosome biogenesis: noncoding nucleolar RNAs in physiology and tumor biology

ABSTRACT

The nucleolus, the largest subcompartment of the nucleus, stands out from the nucleoplasm due to its exceptionally high local RNA and low DNA concentrations. Within this central hub of nuclear RNA metabolism, ribosome biogenesis is the most prominent ribonucleoprotein (RNP) biogenesis process, critically determining the structure and function of the nucleolus. However, recent studies have shed light on other roles of the nucleolus, exploring the interplay with various noncoding RNAs that are not directly involved in ribosome synthesis. This review focuses on this intriguing topic and summarizes the techniques to study and the latest findings on nucleolar long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) as well as microRNAs (miRNAs) in the context of nucleolus biology beyond ribosome biogenesis. We particularly focus on the multifaceted roles of the nucleolus and noncoding RNAs in physiology and tumor biology.

KEYWORDS:

• Cancer
• lncRNA
• miRNA
• noncoding RNA
• nucleolus

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the DFG (EXC 2026: Cardio-Pulmonary Institute (CPI)), the German Cancer Aid (DKH 70113994), and the State of Hesse LOEWE iCANx Program. AN dedicates this work to the memory of the House of the Ribosome chaired by Herbert Tschochner at the University of Regensburg.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [EXC 2026: Cardio-Pulmonary Institute]; Deutsche Krebshilfe [70113994]; Hessisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst [LOEWE iCANx Program].