Access

News and Views

Nature 436, 181-182 (14 July 2005) | doi:10.1038/436181a; Published online 13 July 2005

Developmental biology: Tiny brakes for a growing heart

Benoit G. Bruneau1

Top

The discovery of microRNAs has revolutionized many areas of biology. The latest news is that these RNAs seem to regulate the crucial balance between growth and specialization of cardiac cells.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs for short) are tiny RNA molecules that downregulate protein production, either by inhibiting the translation of protein from messenger RNA or by promoting the degradation of mRNA1, 2. In plants, miRNAs have major influences on embryonic development, primarily by slowing down the production of proteins that regulate gene expression.