Journal
NATURE STRUCTURAL & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
Volume 20, Issue 9, Pages 1106-+Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2646
Keywords
-
Funding
- US National Science Foundation (NSF) [MCB-0951120]
- NSF CAREER [MCB-1253369]
- US National Institutes of Health [R21AI097570]
- Welch foundation [A-1777]
- NSF-REU [MCB-1232817]
- Chinese Scholarship Council
- Direct For Biological Sciences
- Div Of Molecular and Cellular Bioscience [1121438] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Div Of Molecular and Cellular Bioscience
- Direct For Biological Sciences [1253369, 0951120] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) originate from primary transcripts (pri-miRNAs) with characteristic stem-loop structures, and their accurate processing is required for the production of functional miRNAs. Here, using the pri-miR-166 family in Arabidopsis thaliana as a paradigm, we report the crucial role of pri-miRNA terminal loops in miRNA biogenesis. We found that multibranched terminal loops in pri-miR-166s substantially suppress miR-166 expression in vivo. Unlike canonical processing of pri-miRNAs, terminal loop-branched pri-miRNAs can be processed by Dicer-like 1 (DCL1) complexes bidirectionally from base to loop and from loop to base, resulting in productive and abortive processing of miRNAs, respectively. In both cases, DCL1 complexes canonically cut pri-miRNAs at a distance of 16-17 bp from a reference single-stranded loop region. DCL1 also adjusts processing sites toward an internal loop through its helicase domain. These results provide new insight into the poorly understood processing mechanism of pri-miRNAs with complex secondary structures.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available