Cardiomyogenic differentiation is fine-tuned by differential mRNA association with polysomes

Differential association of microRNAs with polysomes reflects distinct strengths of interactions with their mRNA targets.

While microRNAs have been shown to copurify with polysomes, their relative fraction in the translation pool (polysome occupancy) has not yet been measured. Here, we introduce a high-throughput method for quantifying polysome occupancies of hundreds of microRNAs and use it to investigate factors affecting these occupancies. Analysis in human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and foreskin fibroblasts ...

Differential association of insulin-like growth factor I mRNA variants with polysomes in vivo.

Expression of the rat insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) gene results in a number of mature mRNA species that differ in size primarily at the 3' end due to differential polyadenylation site usage. Additionally, alternate splicing in both 5' and 3' regions produces RNAs which have the capacity to encode different IGF-I precursor peptides. We have analyzed total and polysomal RNAs using Norther...

Is the Universe Fine-tuned for Us?

The ancient argument from design for the existence of God is based on the common intuition that the universe and life are too complex to have arisen by natural means alone. However, as philosopher David Hume pointed out in the eighteenth century, the fact that we cannot explain some phenomenon naturally does not allow us to conclude that it had to be a miracle. In recent years, novel versions o...

Chronic Morphine Treatment Decreases the Association of Mu-opioid Receptor (MOR1) mRNA with Polysomes through miRNA23b

In What Sense Is the Early Universe Fine - Tuned ? Sean

It is commonplace in discussions of modern cosmology to assert that the early universe began in a special state. Conventionally, cosmologists characterize this finetuning in terms of the horizon and flatness problems. I argue that the fine-tuning is real, but these problems aren’t the best way to think about it: causal disconnection of separated regions isn’t the real problem, and flatness isn’...