Nature Genetics 38, S20 - S24 (2006)
Published online: ; | doi:10.1038/ng1803
Canalization of development by microRNAsEran Hornstein1
& Noam Shomron21
Eran Hornstein is in the Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel. eran.hornstein@weizmann.ac.il
2
Noam Shomron is in the Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. Animal development is an extremely robust process resulting in stereotyped outcomes. Canalization is a design principle wherein developmental pathways are stabilized to increase phenotypic reproducibility. Recent revelations into microRNA (miRNA) function suggest that miRNAs act as key players in canalizing genetic programs. We suggest that miRNA interactions with the network of protein-coding genes evolved to buffer stochastic perturbations and thereby confer robustness to developmental genetic programs.
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