snoRNAs
Small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) are highly structured noncoding RNAs that regulate gene expression at various levels (e.g. splicing, pre-mRNA stability, ribosome biogenesis, etc.). snoRNAs, which fall into two major groups: box C/D and box H/ACA snoRNAs, display a wide range of functions by guiding either the 2’-O-methylation or pseudouridylation of target RNAs to which they bind. In human, most snoRNAs are embedded within the introns of genes called “host gene”.
Transcriptomics and RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq)
Transcriptomics aims to study all of the RNAs present in a cell. RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) is one of the most widespread method to quantify cellular RNAs at a high throughput. Several RNA-Seq variants exist such as the TGIRT-Seq which we use in the lab and which allows to quantify highly structured RNAs such as snoRNAs.