Abstract
The discovery of new classes of non-coding RNAs has always been preceded or accompanied by technological breakthroughs, and these outstanding progresses in transcriptomics approaches enabled to regularly add new members to the list. From the first detection of tRNAs, through the revolution of miRNAs discovery, to the recent identification of eRNAs or the identification of new functions for already known ncRNAs, this introductive review provides a very concise historical and functional overview of most prominent small regulatory non-coding RNA families.