Bender Welcome
Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Genes Dev. 2008 Jan 1;22(1):14-9. doi: 10.1101/gad.1614208.
The iab-4 noncoding RNA from the Drosophila bithorax complex is the substrate for a microRNA (miRNA). Gene conversion was used to delete the hairpin precursor of this miRNA; flies homozygous for this deletion are sterile. Surprisingly, this mutation complements with rearrangement breakpoint mutations that disrupt the iab-4 RNA but fails to complement with breaks mapping in the iab-5 through iab-7 regulatory regions. These breaks disrupt the iab-8 RNA, transcribed from the opposite strand. This iab-8 RNA also encodes a miRNA, detected on Northern blots, derived from the hairpin complementary to the iab-4 precursor hairpin. Ultrabithorax is a target of both miRNAs, although its repression is subtle in both cases.
果蝇双胸复合体中的iab-4非编码RNA是一种微小RNA(miRNA)的底物。利用基因转换删除了这种miRNA的发夹前体;该缺失的纯合果蝇是不育的。令人惊讶的是,这种突变与破坏iab-4 RNA的重排断点突变互补,但与定位在iab-5至iab-7调控区域的断点不互补。这些断点破坏了从相反链转录的iab-8 RNA。这种iab-8 RNA也编码一种miRNA,在Northern印迹上检测到,它来源于与iab-4前体发夹互补的发夹。超双胸是这两种miRNA的靶标,尽管在这两种情况下其抑制作用都很微弱。