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Thromb Haemost 2012; 107(04): 605-610
DOI: 10.1160/TH11-12-0836
Theme Issue Article
Schattauer GmbH

Regulation of microRNA biogenesis and function

Thomas Treiber
1   Biochemistry Center Regensburg (BZR), Laboratory for RNA Biology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
,
Nora Treiber
1   Biochemistry Center Regensburg (BZR), Laboratory for RNA Biology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
,
Gunter Meister
1   Biochemistry Center Regensburg (BZR), Laboratory for RNA Biology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
› Author Affiliations
Further Information

Publication History

Received: 15 December 2011

Accepted after minor revision: 11 January 2012

Publication Date:
29 November 2017 (online)

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Summary

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are considered as key regulators of literally all cellular pathways. Therefore, miRNA biosynthesis and their individual cellular functions must be tightly regulated as well. MiRNAs are transcribed as primary transcripts, which are processed to mature miRNAs in two consecutive maturation steps. Finally, the mature miRNA is incorporated into a miRNA-protein complex, where it directly interacts with a member of the Argonaute (Ago) protein family. The miRNA guides such protein complexes to partial complementary target sites, which are typically located in the 3’ untranslated region (UTR) of mRNAs leading to inhibition of gene expression. MiRNA activity and abundance is regulated on various levels ranging from transcription and processing to target site binding and miRNA stability. Recent advances in our understanding of how miRNA activity is regulated in mammalian cells are summarised and discussed in this review article.

Keywords

microRNAs - Dicer - Drosha - Argonaute - gene silencing
 

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