Repeated emergence of giant microRNA hairpins across invertebrates Journal Article
| Authors: | Javad-zada, M. M.; Zou, X. D.; Okamura, K.; Shang, R. F.; Garg, A.; Lee, E.; Joshua-Tor, L.; Fromm, B.; Lai, E. C. |
| Article Title: | Repeated emergence of giant microRNA hairpins across invertebrates |
| Abstract: | <p>While canonical microRNA (miRNA) hairpins typically bear 30-35 base pair (bp) stems and <15 nucleotide terminal loops, certain miRNA hairpins are much longer. While vertebrates lack long miRNA hairpins, these emerged multiple times within invertebrate lineages. Systematic assessments across >1,400 genomes provided evolutionary insights into the elongation of well-conserved miRNA precursors, which can harbor >1 kb between conserved miRNA and star species and generally form highly base-paired structures. Experiments in Drosophila and humans showed that flies were preferentially capable of maturing certain long precursors, but human cells had a partial capacity. However, neither could handle extreme miRNA hairpins. Finally, analysis of structural variants revealed that extensive stem structure and a local bulge near the dicing site are critical for biogenesis of a lengthened miRNA precursor; the latter likely represents an internal DGCR8 interaction platform. Altogether, we document unanticipated structural complexity in conserved miRNAs and emphasize bioinformatic challenges for their complete annotation.</p> |
| Keywords: | evolution; recognition; posttranscriptional regulation; biogenesis; small rnas; expression; pathway; precursors; utr sequence motif; uniform system |
| Journal Title: | Cell Reports |
| Volume: | 44 |
| Issue: | 9 |
| ISSN: | 2639-1856 |
| Publisher: | Cell Press |
| Date Published: | 2025-09-23 |
| Start Page: | 116243 |
| Language: | English |
| ACCESSION: | WOS:001572401200001 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.celrep.2025.116243 |
| PROVIDER: | wos |
| PUBMED: | 40934082 |
| Notes: | The MSK Cancer Center Support Grant (P30 CA008748) is acknowledged in the PDF. Corresponding MSK author is Eric C. Lai -- Source: Wos |
Altmetric
Citation Impact
BMJ Impact Analytics
MSK Authors
Related MSK Work