Hypothesis: RNA editing of microRNA target sites in humans?

  1. Han Liang1,3 and
  2. Laura F. Landweber2
  1. 1Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
  2. 2Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA

Abstract

Adenosine (A) to inosine (I) RNA editing occurs widely in the human transcriptome, and a large proportion of editing sites are within untranslated regions (UTRs). MicroRNAs (miRNAs), an abundant class of regulatory genes, specify the expression of a large number of target genes by pairing to their 3′ UTRs. To study the interplay between these two post-transcriptional events, we developed a computational pipeline to integrate sequence and miRNA tissue specificity data. The results show that some A-to-I RNA editing positions have a potential to block the miRNA:target recognition, although further computational simulation suggests that RNA editing tends to avoid miRNA target sites in general. We propose that a small proportion of RNA editing events may provide an additional layer of control on miRNA-mediated repression. Further investigation is needed to elucidate the functional effect of these special RNA editing events.

Keywords

Footnotes

  • 3 Present address: Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago, 1101 E. 57th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA

  • Reprint requests to: Laura F. Landweber, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA; e-mail: lfl{at}princeton.edu; fax: (609) 258-7892.

  • Article published online ahead of print. Article and publication date are at http://www.rnajournal.org/cgi/doi/10.1261/rna.296407.

    • Received September 6, 2006.
    • Accepted December 18, 2006.
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