Smith Christopher Michael, Hutvagner Gyorgy
University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Sci Rep. 2022 Feb 18;12(1):2834. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-06876-3.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding small RNAs which play a critical role in the regulation of gene expression in cells. It is known that miRNAs are often expressed as multiple isoforms, called isomiRs, which may have alternative regulatory functions. Despite the recent development of several single cell small RNA sequencing protocols, these methods have not been leveraged to investigate isomiR expression and regulation to better understand their role on a single cell level. Here we integrate sequencing data from three independent studies and find substantial differences in isomiR composition that suggest that cell autonomous mechanisms may drive isomiR processing. We also find evidence of altered regulatory functions of different classes of isomiRs, when compared to their respective wild-type miRNA, which supports a biological role for many of the isomiRs that are expressed.
微小RNA（miRNA）是一类非编码小RNA，在细胞基因表达调控中发挥关键作用。已知miRNA常以多种异构体形式表达，即异源miRNA（isomiR），它们可能具有不同的调控功能。尽管近期已开发出多种单细胞小RNA测序方案，但这些方法尚未用于研究异源miRNA的表达和调控，以便在单细胞水平上更好地理解它们的作用。在此，我们整合了来自三项独立研究的测序数据，发现异源miRNA组成存在显著差异，这表明细胞自主机制可能驱动异源miRNA的加工过程。我们还发现，与各自的野生型miRNA相比，不同类别的异源miRNA的调控功能发生了改变，这支持了许多已表达的异源miRNA具有生物学作用的观点。
