UTR and non-coding RNA: reconnecting terms to function

Instituto Oswaldo Cruz - Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.3102v1
Subject Areas
Biochemistry, Genetics, Genomics, Molecular Biology
Keywords
untranslated region, UTR, translation, non-coding RNA, transcription, scientific names, biological coding
Copyright
© 2017 brandao
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
brandao a. 2017. UTR and non-coding RNA: reconnecting terms to function. PeerJ Preprints 5:e3102v1

Abstract

Scientific terms should be as accurate and meaningful as possible for both researchers and the general science readership. Currently, some scientific terms do not properly describe the activity or function to which they are associated to, being frequently characterized by negative reference to a prior feature or finding. UTR (Untranslated Region) and non-coding RNA fall within this class. In this article, I argue for a revision of these terms to account for the growing lines of evidence about their known function and activity in the cell.

Author Comment

This is a preprint submission to PeerJ Preprints.