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- Title
Bidirectional processing of pri-miRNAs with branched terminal loops by Arabidopsis Dicer-like1.
- Authors
Zhu, Hongliang; Zhou, Yuyi; Castillo-González, Claudia; Lu, Amber; Ge, Chunxiao; Zhao, Ying-Tao; Duan, Liusheng; Li, Zhaohu; Axtell, Michael J; Wang, Xiu-Jie; Zhang, Xiuren
- Abstract
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) originate from primary transcripts (pri-miRNAs) with characteristic stem-loop structures, and their accurate processing is required for the production of functional miRNAs. Here, using the pri-miR-166 family in Arabidopsis thaliana as a paradigm, we report the crucial role of pri-miRNA terminal loops in miRNA biogenesis. We found that multibranched terminal loops in pri-miR-166s substantially suppress miR-166 expression in vivo. Unlike canonical processing of pri-miRNAs, terminal loop-branched pri-miRNAs can be processed by Dicer-like 1 (DCL1) complexes bidirectionally from base to loop and from loop to base, resulting in productive and abortive processing of miRNAs, respectively. In both cases, DCL1 complexes canonically cut pri-miRNAs at a distance of 16-17 bp from a reference single-stranded loop region. DCL1 also adjusts processing sites toward an internal loop through its helicase domain. These results provide new insight into the poorly understood processing mechanism of pri-miRNAs with complex secondary structures.
- Subjects
MICRORNA; ARABIDOPSIS thaliana; MICRORNA genetics; WESTERN immunoblotting; RNA helicase; RNA ligases
- Publication
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 2013, Vol 20, Issue 9, p1106
- ISSN
1545-9993
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/nsmb.2646