How do microRNAs recognize their targets?
Sites with as little as seven base pairs matching the miRNA 5′ end can confer regulation; such 5′-dominant sites are common in conserved 3′ UTRs.
Source
Principles of microRNA-target recognition
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How do microRNAs recognize their targets?
These passages occur verbatim in the stored paper text. They support the points listed below; they do not verify every statement in the explanation.
5′ dominant sites occur 2- to 3-fold more often than random in conserved 3′ UTRs.
Genome-wide, 5′ dominant sites occur 2- to 3-fold more often in conserved 3′ UTR sequences than would be expected at random.
How short can a functional miRNA site be?
sites with as little as seven base-pairs of complementarity to the miRNA 5′ end are sufficient to confer regulation in vivo and are used in biologically relevant targets.
What they did
Combined experimental and computational analyses of miRNA–target pairing rules in animals.
What they found
Seven-bp complementarity to the miRNA 5′ end suffices for in vivo regulation; genome-wide, 5′-dominant sites occur 2–3× more often than random in conserved 3′ UTRs and were often missed by energy-optimized predictors.
The limits
What it doesn't show
Rules are for animal miRNAs studied; not every predicted site is equally functional in every tissue.
Key terms
- microRNA (miRNA)
- Small noncoding RNA guiding post-transcriptional repression.
- Seed / 5′ site
- Short complementarity to the miRNA 5′ end.
- 3′ UTR
- Untranslated region harboring many miRNA sites.
- 5′-dominant site
- Target site relying mainly on 5′ pairing.
- Post-transcriptional regulation
- Control of mRNA stability/translation after transcription.
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Minimal highlighted pairing:
Common questions
Minimal pairing length highlighted?
Seven base pairs to the miRNA 5′ end.
Where are sites enriched?
Conserved 3′ UTRs.
Enrichment vs random?
About 2- to 3-fold.
Why missed before?
Limited pairing ranked poorly in energy-only searches.
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