UMMS Affiliation
Program in Molecular Medicine; RNA Therapeutics Institute
Publication Date
2016-02-26
Document Type
Article
Disciplines
Biochemistry | Developmental Biology | Genetics | Genomics | Molecular Biology | Molecular Genetics
Abstract
The double-stranded RNA-binding protein Staufen has been implicated in various post-transcriptional gene regulatory processes. Here we demonstrate that the Caenorhabditis elegans homolog of Staufen, STAU-1, functionally interacts with microRNAs. Loss-of-function mutations of stau-1 significantly suppress phenotypes of let-7 family microRNA mutants, a hypomorphic allele of dicer and a lsy-6 microRNA partial loss-of-function mutant. Furthermore, STAU-1 modulates the activity of lin-14, a target of lin-4 and let-7 family microRNAs, and this modulation is abolished when the 3' untranslated region of lin-14 is removed. Deep sequencing of small RNA cDNA libraries reveals no dramatic change in the levels of microRNAs, or other small RNA populations between wild type and stau-1 mutant, with the exception of certain endogenous siRNAs in the WAGO pathway. The modulation of microRNA activity by STAU-1 does not seem to be associated with the previously reported enhanced exogenous RNAi (Eri) phenotype of stau-1 mutants since eri-1 exhibits the opposite effect on microRNA activity. Altogether, our results suggest that STAU-1 negatively modulates microRNA activity downstream of biogenesis, possibly by competing with microRNAs for binding on the 3' untranslated region of target mRNAs.
Keywords
microRNA, stau-1, RNAi, RNA-binding protein, 3’UTR
Rights and Permissions
Copyright © 2016 Author et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
DOI of Published Version
10.1534/g3.116.027300
Source
G3 (Bethesda). 2016 Feb 26. pii: g3.116.027300. doi: 10.1534/g3.116.027300. [Epub ahead of print]. Link to article on publisher's website
Journal/Book/Conference Title
G3 (Bethesda)
Related Resources
PubMed ID
26921297
Repository Citation
Ren, Zhiji; Veksler-Lublinsky, Isana; Morrissey, David; and Ambros, Victor R., "Staufen Negatively Modulates microRNA Activity in Caenorhabditis elegans" (2016). Program in Molecular Medicine Publications and Presentations. 42.
https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/pmm_pp/42
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Included in
Biochemistry Commons, Developmental Biology Commons, Genetics Commons, Genomics Commons, Molecular Biology Commons, Molecular Genetics Commons
Comments
Early Online version of manuscript.