Repressing the Repressor: A lincRNA as a MicroRNA Sponge in Embryonic Stem Cell Self-Renewal

Large intergenic noncoding (linc) RNAs constitute a new dimension of posttranscriptional gene regulation. In this issue of Developmental Cell , Wang et al. (2013) find that linc-RoR maintains human embryonic stem cell self-renewal by functioning as a sponge to trap miR-145, thus regulating core pluripotency factors Oct4, Nanog, and Sox2.