A growing list of microRNAs (miRNAs) show aberrant expression patterns in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but the regulatory mechanisms largely remain unclear. RNA editing catalyzed by members of the adenosine deaminase acting on the RNA (ADAR) family could target the miRNA precursors and affect the biogenesis process. Therefore, we investigate whether RNA editing could be one mechanism contrib...

Little is known about the contribution of translational control to circadian rhythms. To address this issue and in particular translational control by microRNAs (miRNAs), we knocked down the miRNA biogenesis pathway in Drosophila circadian tissues. In combination with an increase in circadian-mediated transcription, this severely affected Drosophila behavioral rhythms, indicating that miRNAs fu...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been shown to play important roles in post-transcriptional gene regulation. The hairpin structure is a key characteristic of the microRNAs precursors (pre-miRNAs). How to encode their hairpin structures is a critical step to correctly detect the pre-miRNAs from background sequences, i.e., pseudo miRNA precursors. In this paper, we have proposed to encode the hairpin stru...

MiRNAs are ~20 nt small RNAs that regulate networks of proteins using a seed region of nucleotides 2-8 to complement the 3' UTR of target mRNAs. The biogenesis and function of miRNAs as translational repressors is facilitated by protein counterparts that process primary and precursor miRNAs to maturity (Drosha/DCGR8 and Dicer/TRBP respectively) and incorporate miRNAs into the protein complex RI...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of highly conserved small noncoding RNAs that negatively regulate gene expression by imperfectly base pairing to the 3'-untranslated region of their target mRNAs, leading to mRNA degradation or translational inhibition. The emerging field of miRNA biology has begun to unravel roles for these regulatory molecules in a variety of biological processes. This review co...

Small non-coding RNAs include powerful regulators of gene expression, transposon mobility and virus activity. Among the various categories, mature microRNAs (miRNAs) guide the translational repression and decay of several targeted mRNAs. The biogenesis of miRNAs depends on few gene products, essentially conserved from basal to higher metazoans, whose protein domains allow specific interactions ...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small RNAs that post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression in many multicellular organisms. They are encoded in the genome and transcribed into primary (pri-) miRNAs before two processing steps that ultimately produce the mature miRNA. In order to generate the appropriate amount of a particular miRNA in the correct location at the correct time, proper regulation of m...

Lariat RNAs formed as by-products of splicing are quickly degraded by the RNA debranching enzyme 1 (DBR1), leading to their turnover. Null dbr1 mutants in both animals and plants are embryo lethal, but the mechanism underlying the lethality remains unclear. Here we characterized a weak mutant allele of DBR1 in Arabidopsis, dbr1-2, and showed that a global increase in lariat RNAs was unexpectedl...

To assess miRNA evolution across the Drosophila genus, we analyzed several billion small RNA reads across 12 fruit fly species. These data permit comprehensive curation of species- and clade-specific variation in miRNA identity, abundance, and processing. Among well-conserved miRNAs, we observed unexpected cases of clade-specific variation in 5' end precision, occasional antisense loci, and put...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small noncoding RNAs involved in multiple cellular processes. Recent findings indicate that miRNA activity is globally suppressed in mouse oocytes. However, whether miRNAs are expressed and function in porcine oocytes remains unknown. In this study, our aims were to ascertain if miRNA biogenesis occurs and whether miRNA activity is globally suppressed during po...