Analysis of the genomes of several higher eukaryotic organisms, including mouse and human, has reached the striking conclusion that the mammalian transcriptome is constituted in large part of non-protein-coding transcripts. Conversely, the number of protein-coding genes was initially at least overestimated. A growing number of studies report the involvement of non-coding transcripts in a large variety of regulatory processes. This review examines the different types of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) and discusses their putative mode of action with particular reference to large ncRNAs and their role in epigenetic regulation.