Abstract
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are produced by the Dicer1 enzyme; the role of Dicer1 in vertebrate development is unknown. Here we report target-selected inactivation of the dicer1 gene in zebrafish. We observed an initial build-up of miRNA levels, produced by maternal Dicer1, in homozygous dicer1 mutants, but miRNA accumulation stopped after a few days. This resulted in developmental arrest around day 10. These results indicate that miRNA-producing Dicer1 is essential for vertebrate development.
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Acknowledgements
We thank M. Koster, J. Mudde, M. den Broeder and A. Keijser for help with finding of the Dicer mutants; the Sanger Centre for sequencing the BAC containing the dicer1 gene; and D. Jongejan-Zivkovic, M. Tijsterman and R. Ketting for discussions. This work is supported by a grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific research (NWO).
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Wienholds, E., Koudijs, M., van Eeden, F. et al. The microRNA-producing enzyme Dicer1 is essential for zebrafish development. Nat Genet 35, 217–218 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng1251
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ng1251
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