exoribonuclease is a tumor suppressor, acts within the RNA machinery and is not enriched in the nuage during early oogenesis.

BACKGROUND

micro RNAs (miRNAs) are important regulators of many biological pathways. A plethora of steps are required to form, from a precursor, the mature miRNA that eventually acts on its target RNA to repress its expression or to inhibit translation. Recently, () has been shown to be an important player in the maturation process of miRNA and piRNA. Nbr is an exoribonuclease which helps to shape the 3' end of miRNAs by trimming the 3' overhang to a final length.

RESULTS

In contrast to previous reports on the localization of Nbr, we report that 1) Nbr is expressed only during a short time of oogenesis and appears ubiquitously localized within oocytes, and that 2) Nbr was is not enriched in the nuage where it was shown to be involved in -mediated mechanisms. To date, there is little information available on the function of for cellular and developmental processes. Due to the fact that mutants are viable with minor deleterious effects, we used the over-expression system to define novel functions of . We disclose hitherto unknown functions of 1) as a tumor suppressor and 2) as a suppressor of RNA. Finally, we confirm that is a suppressor of transposon activity.

CONCLUSIONS

Our data suggest that exerts much more widespread functions than previously reported from trimming 3' ends of miRNAs only.