UMMS Affiliation

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology

Date

6-7-2011

Document Type

Article

Subjects

MicroRNAs; RNA-Induced Silencing Complex

Disciplines

Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology | Genetics and Genomics | Life Sciences | Medicine and Health Sciences

Abstract

BACKGROUND: MicroRNA (miRNA) are diverse in sequence and have a single known sequence bias: they tend to start with uridine (U).

RESULTS: Our analyses of fly, worm and mouse miRNA sequence data reveal that the 5'-U is recognized after miRNA production. Only one of the two strands can be assembled into Argonaute protein from a single miRNA/miRNA* molecule: in fly embryo lysate, a 5'-U promotes miRNA loading while decreasing the loading of the miRNA*.

CONCLUSION: We suggest that recognition of the 5'-U enhances Argonaute loading by a mechanism distinct from its contribution to weakening base pairing at the 5'-end of the prospective miRNA and, as recently proposed in Arabidopsis and in humans, that it improves miRNA precision by excluding incorrectly processed molecules bearing other 5'-nt.

Rights and Permissions

Citation: Silence. 2011 Jun 7;2:4. Link to article on publisher's site

Comments

© 2011 Seitz et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Related Resources

Link to Article in PubMed