CSHL Press News

Two independent, upcoming G&D papers lend new insight into the expression of microRNAs and their targets during vertebrate development. Dr. David Bartel and colleagues describe a novel experimental system for genome-wide quantitative analysis of miRNA target expression in miRNA-expressing cells. They found that in the developing zebrafish embryo, miRNA targets are commonly expressed at lower levels in miRNA-expressing cells, suggesting that miRNAs work in concert with other regulatory processes to dampen target gene expression in specific miRNA-expressing cells. Separately, Dr. Antonio Giraldez and colleagues detail their identification of the muscle-specific miRNA targets in the zebrafish embryo. They report that miR-1 and miR-133 are they key muscle regulatory miRNAs, and that they function by mediating actin organization in the developing muscle.

Corresponding Papers:

Coherent but overlapping expression of microRNAs and their targets during vertebrate development
Alena Shkumatava, Alexander Stark, Hazel Sive, and David Bartel

Zerbafish miR-1 and miR-133 shape muscle gene expression and regulate sarcomeric actin organization
Yuichiro Mishima, Cei Abreu-Goodger, Alison A Staton, Carlos Stahlhut, Chong Shou, Chao Cheng, Mark Gerstein, Anton J Enright, and Antonio J Giraldez

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