Post-transcriptional and translational regulation of mRNA-like long non-coding RNAs by microRNAs in early developmental stages of zebrafish embryos.
At the post-transcriptional and translational levels, microRNA (miRNA) represses protein-coding genes via seed pairing to the 3' untranslated regions (UTRs) of mRNA. Although working models of miRNA-mediated gene silencing are successfully established using miRNA transfections and knockouts, the regulatory interaction between miRNA and long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) remain unknown. In particular, how the mRNA-resembling lncRNAs with 5' cap, 3' poly(A)-tail, or coding features, are regulated by miRNA is yet to be examined. We therefore investigated the functional interaction between miRNAs and lncRNAs with/without those features, in miRNAtransfected early zebrafish embryos. We observed that the greatest determinants of the miRNA-mediated silencing of lncRNAs were the 5' cap and 3' poly(A)-tails in lncRNAs, at both the post-transcriptional and translational levels. The lncRNAs confirmed to contain 5' cap, 3' poly(A)-tail, and the canonical miRNA target sites, were observed to be repressed in the level of both RNA and ribosome-protected fragment, while those with the miRNA target sites and without 5' cap and 3' poly(A)-tail, were not robustly repressed by miRNA introduction, thus suggesting a role as a miRNA-decoy. [BMB Reports 2017; 50(4): 226-231].
Department of Life Science, College of Natural Sciences, Hanyang University, Seoul 133791, Korea.
Kyung-Tae
KT
Lee
Department of Life Science, College of Natural Sciences, Hanyang University; Research Institute for Natural Sciences, Hanyang University; Research Institute for Convergence of Basic Sciences, Hanyang University, Seoul 133791, Korea.
Jin-Wu
JW
Nam
D020413:3' Untranslated Regions; D000818:Animals; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian / Q000378:metabolism*; D047108:Embryonic Development / Q000235:genetics; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D020868:Gene Silencing; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D062085:RNA, Long Noncoding / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D059467:Transcriptome; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000254:growth & development
D020413:3' Untranslated Regions; D035683:MicroRNAs; D062085:RNA, Long Noncoding