Function
microRNAs (miRNAs) are short (20-24 nt) non-coding RNAs that are involved in post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression in multicellular organisms by affecting both the stability and translation of mRNAs. miRNAs are transcribed by RNA polymerase II as part of capped and polyadenylated primary transcripts (pri-miRNAs) that can be either protein-coding or non-coding. The primary transcript is cleaved by the Drosha ribonuclease III enzyme to produce an approximately 70-nt stem-loop precursor miRNA (pre-miRNA), which is further cleaved by the cytoplasmic Dicer ribonuclease to generate the mature miRNA and antisense miRNA star (miRNA*) products. The mature miRNA is incorporated into a RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC), which recognizes target mRNAs through imperfect base pairing with the miRNA and most commonly results in translational inhibition or destabilization of the target mRNA. The RefSeq represents the predicted microRNA stem-loop.
Further reading
- Park YS, Jeon YJ, Lee BE, Kim TG, Choi JU, Kim DS, Kim NK (July 2012). "Association of the miR-146aC>G, miR-196a2C>T, and miR-499A>G polymorphisms with moyamoya disease in the Korean population". Neuroscience Letters. 521 (1): 71–5. doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2012.05.062. PMID 22659075.
- Lim LP, Glasner ME, Yekta S, Burge CB, Bartel DP (March 2003). "Vertebrate microRNA genes". Science. 299 (5612): 1540. doi:10.1126/science.1080372. PMID 12624257.
- Qi P, Dou TH, Geng L, Zhou FG, Gu X, Wang H, Gao CF (June 2010). "Association of a variant in MIR 196A2 with susceptibility to hepatocellular carcinoma in male Chinese patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection". Human Immunology. 71 (6): 621–6. doi:10.1016/j.humimm.2010.02.017. PMID 20188135.
- Dou T, Wu Q, Chen X, Ribas J, Ni X, Tang C, Huang F, Zhou L, Lu D (December 2010). "A polymorphism of microRNA196a genome region was associated with decreased risk of glioma in Chinese population". Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology. 136 (12): 1853–9. doi:10.1007/s00432-010-0844-5. PMID 20229273.
- Mori M, Nakagami H, Rodriguez-Araujo G, Nimura K, Kaneda Y (2012). "Essential role for miR-196a in brown adipogenesis of white fat progenitor cells". PLoS Biology. 10 (4): e1001314. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001314. PMC 3335871. PMID 22545021.
- Ye Y, Wang KK, Gu J, Yang H, Lin J, Ajani JA, Wu X (November 2008). "Genetic variations in microRNA-related genes are novel susceptibility loci for esophageal cancer risk". Cancer Prevention Research. 1 (6): 460–9. doi:10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-08-0135. PMC 2768267. PMID 19138993.
- Qiu LX, Wang Y, Xia ZG, Xi B, Mao C, Wang JL, Wang BY, Lv FF, Wu XH, Hu LQ (December 2011). "miR-196a2 C allele is a low-penetrant risk factor for cancer development". Cytokine. 56 (3): 589–92. doi:10.1016/j.cyto.2011.08.019. PMID 21907588.
- Kashiyama K, Mitsutake N, Matsuse M, Ogi T, Saenko VA, Ujifuku K, Utani A, Hirano A, Yamashita S (June 2012). "miR-196a downregulation increases the expression of type I and III collagens in keloid fibroblasts". The Journal of Investigative Dermatology. 132 (6): 1597–604. doi:10.1038/jid.2012.22. PMID 22358059.
- Xu W, Xu J, Liu S, Chen B, Wang X, Li Y, Qian Y, Zhao W, Wu J (2011). "Effects of common polymorphisms rs11614913 in miR-196a2 and rs2910164 in miR-146a on cancer susceptibility: a meta-analysis". PLoS One. 6 (5): e20471. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0020471. PMC 3102728. PMID 21637771.
This article incorporates text from the United States National Library of Medicine, which is in the public domain.