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Determinants of targeting by endogenous and exogenous microRNAs and siRNAs.

ABSTRACT: Vertebrate mRNAs are frequently targeted for post-transcriptional repression by microRNAs (miRNAs) through mechanisms involving pairing of 3' UTR seed matches to bases at the 5' end of miRNAs. Through analysis of expression array data following miRNA or siRNA overexpression or inhibition, we found that mRNA fold change increases multiplicatively (i.e., log-additively) with seed match count and that a single 8 mer seed match mediates down-regulation comparable to two 7 mer seed matches. We identified several targeting determinants that enhance seed match-associated mRNA repression, including the presence of adenosine opposite miRNA base 1 and of adenosine or uridine opposite miRNA base 9, independent of complementarity to the siRNA/miRNA. Increased sequence conservation in the approximately 50 bases 5' and 3' of the seed match and increased AU content 3' of the seed match were each independently associated with increased mRNA down-regulation. All of these determinants are enriched in the vicinity of conserved miRNA seed matches, supporting their activity in endogenous miRNA targeting. Together, our results enable improved siRNA off-target prediction, allow integrated ranking of conserved and nonconserved miRNA targets, and show that targeting by endogenous and exogenous miRNAs/siRNAs involves similar or identical determinants.

SUBMITTER: Nielsen CB

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2040081 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Determinants of targeting by endogenous and exogenous microRNAs and siRNAs.

Nielsen Cydney B CB Shomron Noam N Sandberg Rickard R Hornstein Eran E Kitzman Jacob J Burge Christopher B CB

RNA (New York, N.Y.) 20070913 11

Vertebrate mRNAs are frequently targeted for post-transcriptional repression by microRNAs (miRNAs) through mechanisms involving pairing of 3' UTR seed matches to bases at the 5' end of miRNAs. Through analysis of expression array data following miRNA or siRNA overexpression or inhibition, we found that mRNA fold change increases multiplicatively (i.e., log-additively) with seed match count and that a single 8 mer seed match mediates down-regulation comparable to two 7 mer seed matches. We identi ...[more]

PMID: 17872505

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Project description:BackgroundSmall endogenous non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs) such as small interfering RNA (siRNA), microRNA and other small RNA transcripts are derived from distinct loci in the genome and play critical roles in RNA-mediated gene silencing mechanisms in plants and metazoa. They are approximately 22 nucleotides long; regulate mRNA stability through perfect or imperfect match to the targets. The biological activities of sncRNAs have been related to many biological events, from resistance to microbe infections to cellular differentiation. The development of the zoonotic parasite Schistosoma japonicum parasite includes multiple steps of morphological alterations and biological differentiations, which provide a unique model for studies on the functions of small RNAs. Characterization of the genome-wide transcription of the sncRNAs will be a major step in understanding of the parasite biology. The objective of this study is to investigate the transcriptional profile and potential function of the small non-coding RNAs in the development of S. japanicum.ResultsThe endogenous siRNAs were found mainly derived from transposable elements (TE) or transposons and the natural antisense transcripts (NAT). In contrast to other organisms, the TE-derived siRNAs in S. japonicum were more predominant than other sncRNAs including microRNAs (miRNAs). Further, there were distinct length and 3'end variations in the sncRNAs, which were associated with the developmental differentiation of the parasite. Among the identified miRNA transcripts, there were 38 unique to S. japonicum and 16 that belonged to 13 miRNA families are common to other metazoan lineages. These miRNAs were either ubiquitously expressed, or they exhibited specific expression patterns related to the developmental stages or sex. Genes that encoded miRNAs are mainly located in clusters within the genome of S. japonicum. However, genes within one cluster could be differentially transcribed, which suggested that individual genes might be regulated by distinct mechanisms during parasite development.ConclusionsMany miRNA and endogenous siRNA transcripts were identified in S. japonicum and the amount of siRNA was at least 4.4 and 1.6 times more than that of miRNA in both schistosomulum and adult worm stages respectively. SiRNAs are mainly derived from transposable elements (or transposons); while natural antisense transcripts (NAT)-derived siRNAs were much less. A majority of miRNA transcripts identified in the parasite were species-specific and the expression of certain miRNAs was found developmentally regulated. Both miRNA and siRNAs are potentially important regulators in the development of schistosomal parasites.

Project description:ABSTRACT: Exposure to abiotic stresses triggers global changes in the expression of thousands of eukaryotic genes at the transcriptional 70 and post-transcriptional levels. Small RNA (smRNA) pathways and splicing both function as crucial mechanisms regulating stress-responsive gene expression. However, examples of smRNAs regulating gene expression remain largely limited to effects on mRNA stability, translation, and epigenetic regulation. Also, our understanding of the networks controlling plant gene expression in response to environmental changes, and examples of these regulatory pathways intersecting, remains limited. Here, to investigate the role of smRNAs in stress responses we examined smRNA transcriptomes of Brachypodium distachyon plants subjected to various abiotic stresses. We found that exposure to different abiotic stresses specifically induced a group 75 of novel, endogenous small interfering RNAs (stress-induced, UTR-derived siRNAs, or sutr-siRNAs) that originate from the 3M-bM-^@M-2 UTRs of a subset of coding genes. Our bioinformatics analyses predicted that sutr-siRNAs have potential regulatory functions and that over 90% of sutr-siRNAs target intronic regions of many mRNAs in trans. Importantly, a subgroup of these sutr- siRNAs target the important intron regulatory regions, such as branch point sequences, that could affect splicing. Our study indicates that in Brachypodium, sutr-siRNAs may affect splicing by masking or changing accessibility of specific cis-elements 80 through base-pairing interactions to mediate gene expression in response to stresses. We hypothesize that this mode of regulation of gene expression may also serve as a general mechanism for regulation of gene expression in plants and potentially in other eukaryotes. Analysis of smRNA populations in Brachypodium plants challenged by abiotic stresses: To profile the populations of smRNAs in the model monocot Brachypodium distachyon and examine their regulation in response to abiotic stresses, we conducted high-throughput sequencing of small RNAs from plants exposed to four different abiotic stress conditions, cold, heat (air), heat (water immersion), and salt, in the wild type Brachypodium cultivar Bd21. For our experiments we used information from the literature to select two time-points for stress durations, short and long, which differed for each stress: cold (6 and 24 hours), heat-air (1 and 3 hours), heat-water (1 and 3 hours), and salt (48 hours). We generated small RNA libraries for Illumina sequencing (GAII) from the leaves of Brachypodium plants subjected to stresses and selected smRNAs between 15 and 40 nt in length, which we mapped to the Brachypodium genome.

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Determinants of targeting by endogenous and exogenous microRNAs and siRNAs.

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Determinants of targeting by endogenous and exogenous microRNAs and siRNAs.

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