title: Hypothesis: RNA editing of microRNA target sites in humans?
abstract: Adenosine (A) to inosine (I) RNA editing occurs widely in the human transcriptome, and a large proportion of editing sites are within untranslated regions (UTRs). MicroRNAs (miRNAs), an abundant class of regulatory genes, specify the expression of a large number of target genes by pairing to their 3' UTRs. To study the interplay between these two post-transcriptional events, we developed a computational pipeline to integrate sequence and miRNA tissue specificity data. The results show that some A-to-I RNA editing positions have a potential to block the miRNA:target recognition, although further computational simulation suggests that RNA editing tends to avoid miRNA target sites in general. We propose that a small proportion of RNA editing events may provide an additional layer of control on miRNA-mediated repression. Further investigation is needed to elucidate the functional effect of these special RNA editing events.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Han
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Laura F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Landweber
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008957:Models, Genetic; D017393:RNA Editing
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs