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Science Forum Index » Bio Evolution Forum » News: Thousands of proteins affected by miRNAs...
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| Robert Karl Stonjek... |
 Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 7:22 am |
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Published online 30 July 2008 | Nature 454, 562 (2008) | doi:10.1038/454562b
Thousands of proteins affected by miRNAs
Far from being junk, these snippets of the genome exert wide-ranging
influence.
Erika Check Hayden
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) subtly influence a vast number of proteins involved in
most key biological processes, according to the first large-scale analyses
of how these small pieces of noncoding RNA affect proteins (M. Selbach et
al. Nature doi:10.1038/nature07228; 2008; D. Baek et al. Nature
doi:10.1038/nature07242; 2008).
"These papers represent a tour de force in miRNA research, utilizing
state-of-the-art technology to tackle a very vexing problem in biology,
namely the identification of miRNA target genes," says Frank Slack, a
molecular biologist and miRNA researcher at Yale University.
The studies could help answer long-standing questions about how miRNAs work.
These tiny snippets of genome, just 21 to 25 nucleotides long, were once
thought to be 'junk' material because they are not translated into protein.
In fact, in animals they control protein levels through two mechanisms: by
breaking down the messenger RNA 'read-out' from a gene; and by stopping the
messenger RNA from being translated into protein. But previous studies had
taken only a global look at how miRNAs affect messenger RNA, because of the
technical difficulties in examining how miRNAs affect thousands of proteins
at once...
Source: Nature
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080730/full/454562b.html
Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek |
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