lincRNAs Discovered in Genome

A new study finds about 1,600 known highly conserved, long RNAs with important regulatory roles in the mammlian genome. These are non-protein coding genes that produce "large intervening non-coding RNAs or lincRNAs." 

[There functions include the] regulate a variety of different cellular processes, including cell proliferation, immune surveillance, maintenance of embryonic stem cell pluripotency, neuronal and muscle development, and gametogenesis.

This is in contrast to the nearly 20,000 protein encoding genes. This will add to the classic examples of RNA such as microRNAs.