Small molecules, big role: snoRNAs in gene regulation

2025.03.16.

Small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) are non-coding RNA molecules whose role in gene regulation and their association with certain diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or colorectal cancer, has only recently become known. The Fish Genetics Research Group of the Department of Genetics at ELTE has investigated in detail the temporal expression of snoRNAs in the genome of zebrafish, an important genetic model organism, and has also created an online database (snoDanio) for their interactive visualization.

A research group at the Department of Genetics at ELTE, led by Dr. Máté Varga, has recently created the first database to analyze in detail the expression of small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) in zebrafish, a popular model for biomedical research today.

The function of snoRNAs is essential for certain key modifications to occur in the molecules that make up the ribosomes responsible for the synthesis of our proteins. Therefore, differences in snoRNA expression between our tissues lend support to the theory that the precise function of these 'protein factories' might be slightly different between our tissues.

This deserves particular attention because in recent years, several studies have concluded that serious disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease or colon cancer are associated with alterations in the expression of certain snoRNAs.

The study, published in the journal NAR Genomics and Bioinformatics, has identified 67 previously unknown snoRNAs in addition to the previously described zebrafish-specific snoRNAs. It has also provided a comprehensive analysis of the expression of snoRNA molecules during development and between different adult animal tissues.

"This is the first time that someone has systematically mapped the entire snoRNAome in zebrafish and the resulting database is only the third such single species-specific collection in the world," said Renáta Hamar, PhD student and lead author of the study. "Our results significantly expand our knowledge of these important regulatory molecules in a key model organism used by thousands of groups worldwide to study human diseases."

The research team also used a unique bioinformatics pipeline and created an interactive database "snoDanio" to share their results, which allows other researchers to quickly analyze snoRNA expression in their own experiments.

The zebrafish is a popular model organism for studying human diseases, and for more than 80% of the human genes important in diseases one can find corresponding genes in the zebrafish genome. The new results from the ELTE Fishgenetics Research Group and the snoDanio database may help to create better zebrafish disease models and ultimately will aid us to understand some of the more complex human diseases.

Cover photo made by Dávid Czimer