自然杂志 ›› 2017, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (1): 31-36.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.0253-9608.2017.01.006

• 专题综述 • 上一篇    下一篇

miRNA：除了抑制，它还有激活功能

梁英   

  1. LIANG Ying
  • 收稿日期:2017-01-04 出版日期:2017-02-25 发布日期:2017-03-09

Dual roles of miRNAs: functions of activation and inhibition

复旦大学生物医学研究院EpiRNA实验室，上海 200032   

  1. EpiRNA Lab, Institues of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China
  • Received:2017-01-04 Online:2017-02-25 Published:2017-03-09

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摘要：

早在1993年，美国科学家维克托•安博斯在线虫中发现了第一个miRNA(微小RNA，长度约21～23个核苷酸的内源性非编码单链RNA)。由于其研究的超前性，该结果并未得到广泛关注与认可，并与诺贝尔科学奖失之交臂。至今miRNA的研究已有20多个年头，其功能涉及参与肿瘤细胞的增殖、迁移与侵袭等种种生物学行为。因此，研究miRNA的调控机制对肿瘤临床诊断和治疗具有重要的理论意义和应用价值。传统意义上认为miRNA在细胞浆中通过结合靶基因3’UTR抑制翻译或降解mRNA进而发挥负向调控作用。然而，这很难解释许多位于细胞核内的miRNA的作用机制。近期的研究发现存在核内的miRNA通过结合增强子起到激活基因表达的作用，命名为NamiRNA(nuclear activating miRNA)。那么miRNA的细胞定位是否会影响miRNA的功能呢？定位于细胞核内的miRNA到底与胞浆中的miRNA有何不同呢？

关键词: miRNA, NamiRNA, 定位, 增强子, 功能

Abstract:

Since the American scientist Victor Ambros found the first miRNA (short for microRNA) lin-4 in C.elegans in 1993, the research for miRNA has been elapsed more than twenty years. miRNAs are a group of small non-coding RNAs of approximately 22 nucleotides in length which are endogenous and single-stranded. Existed evidence showed that miRNAs are involved in the proliferation, migration and invasion of many tumor cells, hence it is of great theoretical and applicable significance to understand the molecular mechanism of miRNA for the clinical diagnosis purpose. Traditionally, miRNAs are thought to inhibit mRNA translation
or degradation and then play a negative regulatory role in gene expression by binding the targeted 3’UTR in the cytoplasm. However, it is difficult to explain many miRNAs located in the nucleus which may play a positive role in regulating gene expression. Does miRNA localization affect the function of miRNAs? What are the differences between miRNA located in the nucleus and cytoplasm respectively?

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