An Intronic Element Attenuates the Transcription of a Long Non-coding RNA in Human Cell Lines.

elements are primate-specific repeats and represent the most abundant type of transposable elements (TE) in the human genome. Genome-wide analysis of the enrichment of histone post-translational modifications suggests that human sequences could function as transcriptional enhancers; however, no functional experiments have evaluated the role of sequences in the control of transcription . The present study analyses the regulatory activity of a human sequence from the family located in the second intron of the long intergenic non-coding RNA , found in divergent orientation to the gene. We observed that the sequence acts as an enhancer element based on reporter gene assays while CRISPR-Cas9 deletions of the sequence in K562 cells resulted in a marked transcriptional upregulation of and a decrease in proliferation. Our results suggest that an intragenic sequence with enhancer activity can act as a transcriptional attenuator of its host lincRNA.