Uridine Addition After MicroRNA-Directed Cleavage

作者：Binzhang Shen, Howard M. Goodman · 发表于：Science · 年份：2004 · DOI：10.1126/science.1103521 · 被引用次数：199 · 研究领域：Plant Molecular Biology Research、Plant Virus Research Studies、Plant Disease Resistance and Genetics

One of the important roles of microRNA (miRNA) is to direct the cleavage of messenger RNA (mRNA). However, the mechanisms of decay of the cleaved mRNA products is not well understood. We show that miRNA-directed cleavage products in organisms as diverse as Arabidopsis, mouse, and Epstein-Barr virus have at their 3' ends a stretch (1 to 24 nucleotides) of oligouridine posttranscriptionally added downstream of the cleavage site. This 3' uridine addition, as shown for Arabidopsis, is correlated with decapping and 5' shortening of the cleaved products, suggesting a mechanistic step in the miRNA-directed mRNA decay mechanism.