title: A transgenic resource for conditional competitive inhibition of conserved Drosophila microRNAs.
abstract: Although the impact of microRNAs (miRNAs) in development and disease is well established, understanding the function of individual miRNAs remains challenging. Development of competitive inhibitor molecules such as miRNA sponges has allowed the community to address individual miRNA function in vivo. However, the application of these loss-of-function strategies has been limited. Here we offer a comprehensive library of 141 conditional miRNA sponges targeting well-conserved miRNAs in Drosophila. Ubiquitous miRNA sponge delivery and consequent systemic miRNA inhibition uncovers a relatively small number of miRNA families underlying viability and gross morphogenesis, with false discovery rates in the 4-8% range. In contrast, tissue-specific silencing of muscle-enriched miRNAs reveals a surprisingly large number of novel miRNA contributions to the maintenance of adult indirect flight muscle structure and function. A strong correlation between miRNA abundance and physiological relevance is not observed, underscoring the importance of unbiased screens when assessing the contributions of miRNAs to complex biological processes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Tudor A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Fulga
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: McNeill
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.|Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Binari
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yelick
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Blanche
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Booker
authors.affiliation: Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, Radcliffe Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9DS, UK.
authors.forename: Bruno R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Steinkraus
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schnall-Levin
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Todd
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: DeLuca
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental Biology, Sloan-Kettering Institute, New York City, New York 10065, USA.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bejarano
authors.affiliation: Center for Cancer and Immunology Research, Children's Research Institute, Children's National Medical Center, 111 Michigan Avenue NW, Washington DC 20010, USA.
authors.forename: Zhe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental Biology, Sloan-Kettering Institute, New York City, New York 10065, USA.
authors.forename: Eric C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.affiliation: Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Dennis P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Wall
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.|Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Perrimon
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Van Vactor
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D015723:Gene Library; D008297:Male; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000378:metabolism; D009132:Muscles / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs