Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Highlight
  • Published:

Small RNAs

An epigenetic silencing influence

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 11, pages 172–173 (2010)Cite this article

Subjects

Khraiwesh et al. examined the role of Dicer proteins in the moss Physcomitrella patens, which has four Dicers (DICER-LIKE 1a (DCL1a), DCL1b, DCL3 and DCL4). They chose P. patens because the dual functions of Dicers in miRNA biogenesis and target cleavage are separable in this species. Using targeted knockout-mutants of P. patens, the authors showed that DCL1a is required for miRNA biogenesis and DCL1b is required for miRNA-induced target RNA cleavage.

Intriguingly, DCL1b-null mutants had reduced levels of miRNA target transcripts despite the absence of miRNA-guided cleavage. How do miRNAs regulate their targets in DCL1b knockouts? The authors found that the genes that encode miRNA targets were methylated in DCL1b knockouts, but were not methylated in wild-type controls. They then showed that there was a reduced rate of transcription of miRNA target genes compared with unmethylated non-miRNA-target genes in DCL1b knockouts, indicating that the observed methylation leads to transcriptional silencing of genes that encode miRNA targets.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Khraiwesh, B. et al. Transcriptional control of gene expression by microRNAs. Cell 140, 111–122 (2010)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

FURTHER READING

  1. Ghildiyal, M. & Zamore, P. D. Small silencing RNAs: an expanding universe. Nature Rev. Genet. 10, 94–108 (2009)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Meera Swami
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Swami, M. An epigenetic silencing influence. Nat Rev Genet 11, 172–173 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg2755

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg2755

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing