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Target mimics modulate miRNAs

Nature Genetics volume 39, pages 935–936 (2007)Cite this article

A 23-nucleotide sequence conserved in species from rice to Arabidopsis thaliana in a family of noncoding RNAs resembles a cleavable miRNA target site—but not exactly. A new study demonstrates that the site is not cleaved and instead negatively regulates miRNA activity through mimicry.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small RNA species that regulate gene expression. The hairpin structures of noncoding miRNA primary transcripts are processed to yield mature miRNA molecules that regulate target gene expression through transcript cleavage and translational repression. Recently, attention has been focused on how biogenesis mechanisms and additional transcriptional regulation restrict the accumulation of miRNAs, spatially and temporally, to direct developmental and physiological responses. However, hypotheses of how the activity of the final effector miRNA molecule can be regulated are lacking. That such potent regulators of gene expression would remain unbridled seems unlikely, given the numerous restraints placed upon their protein analogs. On page 1033 of this issue, José Manuel Franco-Zorrilla et al.1 demonstrate that a noncoding transcript in Arabidopsis thaliana regulates the activity of an miRNA implicated in phosphate homeostasis by mimicking its target site. Beyond suggesting an interesting means by which miRNAs are naturally regulated, the work shows that target mimics can artificially regulate miRNAs, introducing a powerful tool to study miRNAs genetically in plants and, perhaps, in animals.

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Figure 1: Possible models of how the induction of the Pi deprivation response in plants is regulated by an miRNA and its target mimic.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Daniel H. Chitwood and Marja C. P. Timmermans are in the Watson School of Biological Sciences, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York 11724, USA. timmerma@cshl.edu,

    Daniel H Chitwood & Marja C P Timmermans

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  1. Daniel H Chitwood
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  2. Marja C P Timmermans
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Chitwood, D., Timmermans, M. Target mimics modulate miRNAs. Nat Genet 39, 935–936 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng0807-935

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