Small but influential: the role of microRNAs on gene regulatory network and 3 ' UTR evolution

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous similar to 22 nucleotide noncoding RNAs that regulate the expression of complementary messenger RNAs (mRNAs). Thousands of miRNA genes have been found in diverse species, and many of them are highly conserved. With the mi

Length polymorphism of thymidylate synthase regulatory region in Chinese populations and evolution of the novel alleles

The tandemly repeated 28-bp sequence in the 5'-terminal regulatory, region of human thymidylate synthase (TSER), which has been reported to be polymorphic in different populations, was surveyed in 668 Chinese from 9 Han groups, 8 ethnic populations, and 3

Some biocybernetic aspects in gene expression and regulatory control

In eucaryotes, gene expression and control is a complex nonlinear process, where there are many control mechanisms and ways, both physic, chemical and informational control. By the exploration from the angle of biocybernetics, the authors suggest that gene expression is a co-control process. In this process, physic, chemical and informational feedback controls are associated and influential each other, and are cross and co-functional. The physic, chemical and informational control ways composed an order non-linear feedback control system in eucaryotes.

Effects of exogenous double-stranded RNA on the basonuclin gene expression in mouse oocytes

In plants and less-advanced animal species, such as C.elegans, introduction of exogenous double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) into cells would trigger degradation of the mRNA with homologous sequence and interfere with the endogenous gene expression. It might represent an ancient anti-virus response which could prevent the mutation in the genome that was caused by virus infection or mobile DNA elements insertion. This phenomenon was named RNA interference, or RNAi. In this study, RNAi was used to investigate the function of basonuclin gene during oogenesis. Microinjection of dsRNA directed towards basonuclin into mouse germinal-vesicle-intact (GV) oocytes brought down the abundance of the cognate mRNA effectively in a time- and concentration-dependent manner. This reduction effect was sequence-specific and showed no negative effect on other non-homologous gene expression in oocytes, which indicated that dsRNA can recognize and cause the degradation of the transcriptional products of endogenous basonuclin gene in a sequence-specific manner. Immunofluorescence results showed that RNAi could reduce the concentration of basonuclin protein to some extent, but the effect was less efficient than the dsRNA targeting towards tPA and cMos which was also expressed in oocytes. This result might be due to the long half life of basonuclin protein in oocytes and the short reaction time which was posed by the limited life span of GV oocytes cultured in vitro. In summary, dsRNA could inhibit the expression of the cognate gene in oocytes at both mRNA and protein levels. The effect was similar to Knock-out technique which was based on homologous recombination. Furthermore, hairpin-style dsRNA targeting basonuclin gene could be produced by transcription from a recombinant plasmid and worked efficiently to deplete the cognate mRNA in oocytes. This finding offered a new way to study the function of basonuclin in the early stage of oogenesis by infection of primordial oocytes with the plasmid expressing hairpin-style basonuclin dsRNA.

Opiate withdrawal induces dynamic-expressions of AMPA receptors and its regulatory molecule CaMKII alpha in hippocampal synapses

Adaptive changes in brain areas following drug withdrawal are believed to contribute to drug seeking and relapse. Cocaine withdrawal alters the expression of GluR1 and GluR2/3 subunits of alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionic acid (AMPA) rec

The identification and quantification of highly stable 'common hairpin' in the dynamic process of co-transcriptional mRNA folding

In our studies, 88 human mRNA samples were collected from the Integrated Sequence-Structure database and then the dynamic process in co-transcriptional mRNA folding was simulated using the RNAstructure version 4.1 program. Through statistical analyses of the frequencies of occurrence of hairpins, a group of special folding structures-the 'common hairpins'-were identified. These 'common hairpins' have lower energies and occur in all the subsequent folding units that formed in the dynamic folding process. By applying the formulas (1)-(4) of the 'common hairpins' statistical model, 163 'common hairpins' were found, to make up about 7% of the total of 2286 hairpins. Classified studies further show that the 'common hairpins' that were studied may oscillate in the dynamic folding process. However, the hairpin loops of the 'common hairpins' and stems proximal to those 'common hairpins' loops maintain topologically stable structures, while other loops and stems distal to the 'common hairpins' loops are shown to be alterable structures. Strikingly, further studies indicate that the stable structures of these 'common hairpins' may have unbeknown effects on controlling the formation of protein structures in the translation process (unpublished results). (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.