Characterization of viral and human RNAs smaller than canonical MicroRNAs.
Recently identified small (20 to 40 bases) RNAs, such as microRNAs (miRNAs) and endogenous small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) participate in important cellular pathways. In this report, we systematically characterized several novel features of human and viral RNA products smaller than miRNAs. We found that Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus K12-1 miRNA (23 bases) associates with a distinct, unusually small (17-base) RNA (usRNA) that can effectively downregulate a K12-1 miRNA target, human RAD21, suggesting that stable degradation-like products may also contribute to gene regulation. High-throughput sequencing reveals a diverse set of human miRNA-derived usRNAs and other non-miRNA-derived usRNAs. Human miRNA-derived usRNAs preferentially match to 5' ends of miRNAs and are also more likely to associate with the siRNA effector protein Ago2 than with Ago1. Many non-miRNA-derived usRNAs associate with Ago proteins and also frequently contain C-rich 3'-specific motifs that are overrepresented in comparison to Piwi-interacting RNAs and transcription start site-associated RNAs. We postulate that approximately 30% of usRNAs could have evolved to participate in biological processes, including gene silencing.
Li
Zhihua
Z
Department of Computational Biology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, USA.
Kim
Sang Woo
SW
Lin
Yuefeng
Y
Moore
Patrick S
PS
Chang
Yuan
Y
John
Bino
B
D060565:Argonaute Proteins; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D002460:Cell Line; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D015852:Eukaryotic Initiation Factor-2 / Q000378:metabolism; D019288:Herpesvirus 8, Human / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D010750:Phosphoproteins / Q000378:metabolism; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology
C466422:AGO2 protein, human; D060565:Argonaute Proteins; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D015852:Eukaryotic Initiation Factor-2; D035683:MicroRNAs; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D010750:Phosphoproteins; C429022:RAD21 protein, human; D012367:RNA, Viral