title: Diversity of animal small RNA pathways and their biological utility.
abstract: Higher eukaryotes employ extensive post-transcriptional gene regulation to accomplish fine control of gene expression. The microRNA (miRNA) family plays important roles in the post-transcriptional gene regulation of broad networks of target mRNA expression. Most miRNAs are generated by a conserved mechanism involving two RNase III enzymes Drosha and Dicer. However, work from the past few years has uncovered diverse noncanonical miRNA pathways, which exploit a variety of other RNA processing enzymes. In addition, the discovery of another abundant small RNA family, endogenous short interfering RNAs (endo-siRNAs), has also broadened the catalogs of short regulatory RNAs. This review highlights recent studies that revealed novel small RNA biogenesis pathways, and discusses their relevance to gene regulatory networks.
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental Biology, Sloan-Kettering Institute, New York, NY, USA. okamurak@mskcc.org
authors.forename: Katsutomo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okamura
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005658:Fungi / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D034622:RNA Interference; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D022661:RNA, Untranslated / Q000378:metabolism; D043244:Ribonuclease III / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering; D022661:RNA, Untranslated; D043244:Ribonuclease III