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Small RNAs

miRNAs' strict schedule

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 13, pages 378–379 (2012)Cite this article

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To determine the kinetics of miRNA-mediated gene silencing, Bazzini et al. used zebrafish embryos, which express miR-430 4 hours post-fertilization to clear maternal mRNAs. They found that the number of ribosomes bound to miR-430 targets significantly decreased 4 hours post-fertilization in wild-type embryos but not in mutants lacking Dicer (which is required for miRNA biogenesis). This finding was indicative of miRNA-mediated translational repression. By contrast, target mRNA levels did not change until 6 hours post-fertilization, which suggests that translational repression occurs before mRNA decay.

Djuranovic et al. approached the same question using Drosophila melanogaster S2 cells transfected with constructs carrying 3′ untranslated regions with miRNA target sites and a luciferase reporter gene fused to the 5′ end. By examining the levels of luciferase (which are indicative of protein expression) and the levels of reporter mRNAs, the authors observed that translation repression occurred at least 2 hours before mRNA decay, which is consistent with the results of Bazzini et al.

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References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPERS

  1. Bazzini, A. A., Lee, M. T. & Giraldez, A. J. Ribosome profiling shows that miR-430 reduces translation before causing mRNA decay in zebrafish. Science 13, 233–237 (2012)

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  2. Djuranovic, S., Nahvi, A. & Green, R. miRNA-mediated gene silencing by translational repression followed by mRNA deadenylation and decay. Science 13, 237–240 (2012)

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FURTHER READING

  1. Huntzinger, E. & Izaurralde, E. Gene silencing by microRNAs: contributions of translational repression and mRNA decay. Nature Rev. Genet. 12, 99–110 (2011)

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  1. Associate Editor, Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology and Nature Reviews Microbiology,

    Rachel David

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  1. Rachel David
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David, R. miRNAs' strict schedule. Nat Rev Genet 13, 378–379 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3251

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