title: The many faces of Dicer: the complexity of the mechanisms regulating Dicer gene expression and enzyme activities.
abstract: There is increasing evidence indicating that the production of small regulatory RNAs is not the only process in which ribonuclease Dicer can participate. For example, it has been demonstrated that this enzyme is also involved in chromatin structure remodelling, inflammation and apoptotic DNA degradation. Moreover, it has become increasingly clear that cellular transcript and protein levels of Dicer must be strictly controlled because even small changes in their accumulation can initiate various pathological processes, including carcinogenesis. Accordingly, in recent years, a number of studies have been performed to identify the factors regulating Dicer gene expression and protein activity. As a result, a large amount of complex and often contradictory data has been generated. None of these data have been subjected to an exhaustive review or critical discussion. This review attempts to fill this gap by summarizing the current knowledge of factors that regulate Dicer gene transcription, primary transcript processing, mRNA translation and enzyme activity. Because of the high complexity of this topic, this review mainly concentrates on human Dicer. This review also focuses on an additional regulatory layer of Dicer activity involving the interactions of protein and RNA factors with Dicer substrates.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznan 61-704, Poland.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kurzynska-Kokorniak
authors.affiliation: Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznan 61-704, Poland.
authors.forename: Natalia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Koralewska
authors.affiliation: Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznan 61-704, Poland.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pokornowska
authors.affiliation: Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznan 61-704, Poland.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Urbanowicz
authors.affiliation: Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznan 61-704, Poland.
authors.forename: Aleksander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tworak
authors.affiliation: Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznan 61-704, Poland.
authors.forename: Agnieszka
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mickiewicz
authors.affiliation: Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznan 61-704, Poland Institute of Computing Science, Poznan University of Technology, Poznan 60-965, Poland marekf@ibch.poznan.pl.
authors.forename: Marek
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Figlerowicz
mesh_terms: D053487:DEAD-box RNA Helicases / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D015971:Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology; D043244:Ribonuclease III / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: C408087:DICER1 protein, human; D043244:Ribonuclease III; D053487:DEAD-box RNA Helicases