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- Title
MicroRNA Precursors Are Not Structurally Robust but Plastic.
- Authors
Rodrigo, Guillermo; Elena, Santiago F.
- Abstract
Robustness is considered a ubiquitous property of living systems at all levels of organization, and small noncoding RNA (sncRNA) is a genuine model for its study at the molecular level. In this communication, we question whether microRNA precursors (pre-miRNAs) are actually structurally robust, as previously suggested. We found that natural pre-miRNAs are not more robust than expected under an appropriate null model. On the contrary, we found that eukaryotic pre-miRNAs show a significant enrichment in conformational flexibility at the thermal equilibrium of the molecule, that is, in their plasticity. Our results further support the selection for functional diversification and evolvability in sncRNAs.
- Subjects
MICRORNA; PHENOTYPIC plasticity; THERMODYNAMIC equilibrium; NON-coding RNA; PHENOTYPES
- Publication
Genome Biology & Evolution, 2013, Vol 5, Issue 1, p181
- ISSN
1759-6653
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/gbe/evs132