The Ben May Department of Cancer Research, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
Oncogene. 2010 Apr 15;29(15):2161-4. doi: 10.1038/onc.2010.59. Epub 2010 Mar 1.
Micro(mi)RNAs are small noncoding RNAs that regulate expression of the majority of the genes in the genome at either the messenger RNA (mRNA) level (by degrading mRNA) or the protein level (by blocking translation). miRNAs are thought to be components of vast regulatory networks. Currently, the field is focused primarily on identifying novel targets of individual miRNAs. This focus is about to undergo a dramatic change. In a new paper by Wu et al. (2010) it is experimentally confirmed that multiple miRNAs target the same gene, suggesting that it is the combination of all these activities that determines the expression of miRNA target genes. This study ushers in a new era of miRNA research that focuses on networks more than on individual connections between miRNA and strongly predicted targets.
微小 RNA（miRNA）是一类小型非编码 RNA，可在信使 RNA（mRNA）水平（通过降解 mRNA）或蛋白水平（通过阻断翻译）调控基因组中大多数基因的表达。miRNA 被认为是庞大调控网络的组成部分。目前，该领域主要集中于鉴定个别 miRNA 的新靶标。这种关注即将发生重大改变。在 Wu 等人的一篇新论文中（2010），通过实验证实多个 miRNA 靶向同一基因，这表明正是这些活动的组合决定了 miRNA 靶基因的表达。该研究开创了 miRNA 研究的新纪元，其关注的是网络而非 miRNA 与强预测靶标之间的个体连接。
