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Structural Differences between Pri-miRNA Paralogs Promote Alternative Drosha Cleavage and Expand Target Repertoires

Journal Article · · Cell Reports
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [5];  [6];  [3];  [1]
  1. National Cancer Institute, Frederic, MD (United States). RNA Mediated Gene Regulation Section, RNA Biology Laboratory, Center for Cancer Research
  2. National Cancer Institute, Frederic, MD (United States). RNA Biology Laboratory, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research
  3. National Cancer Institute, Frederic, MD (United States). Structural Biophysics Laboratory
  4. Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc., Frederick, MD (United States). Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Center for Cancer Research of the National Cancer Institute
  5. National Cancer Institute, Frederic, MD (United States). RNA Mediated Gene Regulation Section, RNA Biology Laboratory, Center for Cancer Research; Zhejiang Chinese Medical Univ., Hangzhou (China)
  6. National Cancer Institute, Frederic, MD (United States). RNA Biology Laboratory, Center for Cancer Research
MicroRNA (miRNA) processing begins with Drosha cleavage, the fidelity of which is critical for downstream processing and mature miRNA target specificity. To understand how pri-miRNA sequence and structure influence Drosha cleavage, we studied the maturation of three pri-miR-9 paralogs, which encode the same mature miRNA but differ in the surrounding scaffold. Here, we show that pri-miR-9-1 has a unique Drosha cleavage profile due to its distorted and flexible stem structure. Cleavage of pri-miR-9-1, but not pri-miR-9-2 or pri-miR-9-3, generates an alternative miR-9 with a shifted seed sequence that expands the scope of its target RNAs. Analyses of low-grade glioma patient samples indicate that the alternative-miR-9 has a potential role in tumor progression. Furthermore, we provide evidence that distortion of pri-miRNA stems induced by asymmetric internal loops correlates with Drosha cleavage at non-canonical sites. Our studies reveal that pri-miRNA paralogs can have distinct functions via differential Drosha processing.
Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Cancer Institute (NCI); USDOE
OSTI ID:
1502245
Journal Information:
Cell Reports, Journal Name: Cell Reports Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 26; ISSN 2211-1247
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
ENGLISH

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Cited By (2)

6mer Seed Toxicity in Viral microRNAs journal February 2020
Unification of miRNA and isomiR research: the mirGFF3 format and the mirtop API journal August 2019

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