Neuron type-specific miRNA represses two broadly expressed genes to modulate an avoidance behavior in C. elegans
- Corresponding author: cochella{at}imp.ac.at
Abstract
Two broad gene classes are distinguished within multicellular organisms: cell type-specific genes, which confer particular cellular properties, and ubiquitous genes that support general cellular functions. However, certain so-called ubiquitous genes show functionally relevant cell type-specific repression. How such repression is achieved is poorly understood. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are repressors, many of which are expressed with high cell type specificity. Here we show that mir-791, expressed exclusively in the CO2-sensing neurons in Caenorhabditis elegans, represses two otherwise broadly expressed genes. This repression is necessary for normal neuronal function and behavior of the animals toward CO2. miRNA-mediated repression of broadly transcribed genes is a previously unappreciated strategy for cellular specialization.
Keywords
Footnotes
-
Supplemental material is available for this article.
-
Article published online ahead of print. Article and publication date are online at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.287904.116.
-
Freely available online through the Genes & Development Open Access option.
- Received July 25, 2016.
- Accepted August 29, 2016.
This article, published in Genes & Development, is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution 4.0 International), as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
