Woltering Joost M, Durston Antony J
Institute of Biology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
PLoS One. 2008 Jan 2;3(1):e1396. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0001396.
BACKGROUND: The Hox genes are involved in patterning the anterior-posterior axis. In addition to the protein coding Hox genes, the miR-10, miR-196 and miR-615 families of microRNA genes are conserved within the vertebrate Hox clusters. The members of the miR-10 family are located at positions associated with Hox-4 paralogues. No function is yet known for this microRNA family but the genomic positions of its members suggest a role in anterior-posterior patterning. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Using sensor constructs, overexpression and morpholino knockdown, we show in Zebrafish that miR-10 targets HoxB1a and HoxB3a and synergizes with HoxB4 in the repression of these target genes. Overexpression of miR-10 also induces specific phenotypes related to the loss of function of these targets. HoxB1a and HoxB3a have a dominant hindbrain expression domain anterior to that of miR-10 but overlap in a weaker expression domain in the spinal cord. In this latter domain, miR-10 knockdown results in upregulation of the target genes. In the case of a HoxB3a splice variant that includes miR-10c within its primary transcript, we show that the microRNA acts in an autoregulatory fashion. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We find that miR-10 acts to repress HoxB1a and HoxB3a within the spinal cord and show that this repression works cooperatively with HoxB4. As with the previously described interactions between miR-196 and HoxA7 and Hox-8 paralogues, the target genes are located in close proximity to the microRNA. We present a model in which we postulate a link between the clustering of Hox genes and post-transcriptional gene regulation. We speculate that the high density of transcription units and enhancers within the Hox clusters places constraints on the precision of the transcriptional control that can be achieved within these clusters and requires the involvement of post-transcriptional gene silencing to define functional domains of genes appropriately.
背景:Hox基因参与前后轴的模式形成。除了蛋白质编码的Hox基因外,miR - 10、miR - 196和miR - 615家族的微小RNA基因在脊椎动物Hox簇中是保守的。miR - 10家族的成员位于与Hox - 4旁系同源物相关的位置。这个微小RNA家族的功能尚不清楚,但其成员的基因组位置表明其在前后模式形成中发挥作用。 方法/主要发现:利用传感器构建体、过表达和吗啉代敲低技术,我们在斑马鱼中表明,miR - 10靶向HoxB1a和HoxB3a,并在这些靶基因的抑制中与HoxB4协同作用。miR - 10的过表达还诱导了与这些靶标功能丧失相关的特定表型。HoxB1a和HoxB3a在后脑的表达域比miR - 10的表达域靠前,但在脊髓中以较弱的表达域重叠。在脊髓的这个表达域中,miR - 10敲低导致靶基因上调。对于一个在其初级转录本中包含miR - 10c的HoxB3a剪接变体,我们表明该微小RNA以自调控方式起作用。 结论/意义:我们发现miR - 10在脊髓中发挥作用抑制HoxB1a和HoxB3a,并表明这种抑制与HoxB4协同作用。与先前描述的miR - 196与HoxA7和Hox - 8旁系同源物之间的相互作用一样,靶基因位于微小RNA附近。我们提出了一个模型,其中我们假设Hox基因的成簇与转录后基因调控之间存在联系。我们推测Hox簇内转录单位和增强子的高密度对这些簇内可实现的转录控制精度施加了限制,并且需要转录后基因沉默的参与来适当地定义基因的功能域。
PLoS One. 2008-1-2
Dev Biol. 2007-9-15
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2005-6-17
Dev Biol. 2011-7-20
Dev Genes Evol. 2007-1
Nat Genet. 2006-6
Nucleic Acids Res. 2006-5-12
Nucleic Acids Res. 2006-3-31
Cell. 2006-3-10