‘Inc-miRs’: functional intron-interrupted miRNA genes

• DOI: 10.1101/gad.2058711
• Publication Date: 2011-08-09T18:29:22Z
• Authors: Huibin Zhang; Jay M. Maniar; Andrew Z. Fire
• Keywords: Model Organism

The discovery of microRNAs (miRNAs) lin-4 and let-7 as temporal regulators in Caenorhabditis elegans led to broader searches for novel miRNAs their biological roles. Unlike protein-coding genes some long noncoding RNAs, canonical metazoan are not known contain introns within genomic precursor sequences. Because the short length complicates a statistically definitive assignment split RNA sequencing data sets, we took an experimental approach toward testing compatibility splicing functional miRNA biogenesis. To definitively evaluate possibility that could derive from interrupted genes, constructed intron-interrupted variants C. assayed miRNA-encoding capability activity developing organism. Our studies indicate (1) intron-containing (inc-miRs) can be efficiently spliced processed produce with normal termini, (2) these full rescue developmental phenotypes null mutants lacking endogenous . This study provides first evidence support ability precursors identifies additional modality available production.