The role of microRNA in the delayed negative feedback regulation of gene expression.

Zhong-Ru Xie, Hsih-Te Yang, Wei-Chung Liu, Ming-Jing Hwang

Institute of Biomedical Informatics, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei 112, Taiwan.

Biochemical and biophysical research communications 2007 Jul 6

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Oscillatory gene expression plays an important role in somite segmentation during the early developmental stages of vertebrates. Recent experimental studies have shown that microRNA can regulate gene expression by stimulating degradation of mRNA and/or repression of translation. In this communication, we incorporate miRNA into a previous mathematical model of gene expression with delayed negative feedback and demonstrate how this modified model can elucidate the possible effect of miRNA on the oscillatory gene expression. Our finding suggests that miRNA maybe a destabilizing or stabilizing factor in the dynamics of gene expression depending on the severity of its effect on mRNA degradation. Our finding provides testable hypothesis for experimental biologists to further investigate miRNA's increasing functional roles in regulating cellular processes and development.

Citation

Zhong-Ru Xie, Hsih-Te Yang, Wei-Chung Liu, Ming-Jing Hwang. The role of microRNA in the delayed negative feedback regulation of gene expression. Biochemical and biophysical research communications. 2007 Jul 6;358(3):722-6