The novel MER transposon-derived miRNAs in human genome.

Kung Ahn, Jeong-An Gim, Hong-Seok Ha, Kyudong Han, Heui-Soo Kim

Department of Biological Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, Pusan National University, Busan 609-735, Republic of Korea.

Gene 2013 Jan 10

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MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small RNA molecules (~20-30 nucleotides) that generally act in gene silencing and translational repression through the RNA interference pathway. They generally originate from intergenic genomic regions, but some are found in genomic regions that have been characterized such as introns, exons, and transposable elements (TE). To identify the miRNAs that are derived from palindromic MERs, we analyzed MER paralogs in human genome. The structures of the palindromic MERs were similar to the hairpin structure of miRNA in humans. Three miRNAs derived from MER96 located on chromosome 3, and MER91C paralogs located on chromosome 8 and chromosome 17 were identified in HeLa, HCT116, and HEK293 cell lines. The interactions between these MER-derived miRNAs and AGO1, AGO2, and AGO3 proteins were validated by immunoprecipitation assays. The data suggest that miRNAs derived from transposable elements could widely affect various target genes in the human genome. Crown Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Citation

Kung Ahn, Jeong-An Gim, Hong-Seok Ha, Kyudong Han, Heui-Soo Kim. The novel MER transposon-derived miRNAs in human genome. Gene. 2013 Jan 10;512(2):422-8