MicroRNAs（miRNAs） are a population of highly conserved specific small ribo-regulators that negatively regulate gene expressions in both plants and animals.They play a key role in post-transcriptional gene regulation...MicroRNAs（miRNAs） are a population of highly conserved specific small ribo-regulators that negatively regulate gene expressions in both plants and animals.They play a key role in post-transcriptional gene regulation by destabilizing the target gene transcripts or blocking protein translation from them.Interestingly,these negative regulators are largely compromised by an upstream layer of negative regulators ＂target mimics＂ found in plants or ＂endogenous competing RNAs＂ revealed recently in animals.These endogenous regulatory mechanisms of ＂double negatives making a positive＂ have now been developed into a key strategy in the study of small RNA functions. This review presents some reflections on the long journey to the short tandem target mimic（STTM） for selective destruction/blockage of specific miRNAs in plants and animals,and the potential applications of STTM are discussed.展开更多
基金Work done in Guiliang Tang's lab was supported,in whole or in part,by USDA National Research Initiative grants(2006- 35301-17115 and 2006-35100-17433)the National Science Foundation grants(MCB-0718029:Subaward No.S-00000260 and IOS-1048216/IOS-1219316)+1 种基金the startup of Michigan Technological UniversityWork done in Xiaoqing Tang's lab was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health(K01 DK078648 and R03 DK084166)
文摘MicroRNAs（miRNAs） are a population of highly conserved specific small ribo-regulators that negatively regulate gene expressions in both plants and animals.They play a key role in post-transcriptional gene regulation by destabilizing the target gene transcripts or blocking protein translation from them.Interestingly,these negative regulators are largely compromised by an upstream layer of negative regulators ＂target mimics＂ found in plants or ＂endogenous competing RNAs＂ revealed recently in animals.These endogenous regulatory mechanisms of ＂double negatives making a positive＂ have now been developed into a key strategy in the study of small RNA functions. This review presents some reflections on the long journey to the short tandem target mimic（STTM） for selective destruction/blockage of specific miRNAs in plants and animals,and the potential applications of STTM are discussed.
