Expression landscape and circadian regulation of lncRNAs in the kidney [RNA-Seq]

Yet circadian regulation of renal lncRNAs, which are emerging as important modulators of diverse (patho)physiological processes, remains largely unexplored. Here, we provide a comprehensive characterization of renal lncRNA expression across cell types and circadian time points using bulk RNA-Seq and single-nucleus RNA-Seq (snRNA-seq) using kidney samples from male mice.

Although the majority of lncRNAs are lowly expressed and only a fraction is annotated, their profiles sufficed to distinguish nearly all renal cell types. Compared with mRNAs, lncRNAs were more cell-type specific and an inverse correlation between cell-type specificity and expression level was evident. To assess the role of the circadian clock, we used mice lacking the core-clock regulator BMAL1 in renal tubules.