MiRNA Regulatory Functions in Photoreceptors
Open Access
- 21 January 2021
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Frontiers Media SA in Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology
Abstract
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important regulators of gene expression. These small, non-coding RNAs post-transcriptionally silence messenger RNAs (mRNAs) in a sequence-specific manner. In this way, miRNAs control important regulatory functions, also in the retina. If dysregulated, these molecules are involved in several retinal pathologies. For example, several miRNAs have been linked to essential photoreceptor functions, including light sensitivity, synaptic transmission, and modulation of inflammatory responses. Mechanistic miRNA knockout and knockdown studies further linked their functions to degenerative retinal diseases. Of note, the type and timing of genetic manipulation before, during, or after retinal development, is important when studying specific miRNA knockout effects. Within this review, we focus on miR-124 and the miR-183/96/182 cluster, which have assigned functions in photoreceptors in health and disease. As a single miRNA can regulate hundreds of mRNAs, we will also discuss the experimental validation and manipulation approaches to study complex miRNA/mRNA regulatory networks. Revealing these networks is essential to understand retinal pathologies and to harness miRNAs as precise therapeutic and diagnostic tools to stabilize the photoreceptors’ transcriptomes and, thereby, function.Keywords
This publication has 132 references indexed in Scilit:
- Up-Regulation of microRNA* Strands by Their Target TranscriptsInternational Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2013
- Mapping the Human miRNA Interactome by CLASH Reveals Frequent Noncanonical BindingCell, 2013
- Evaluating the MicroRNA Targeting Sites by Luciferase Reporter Gene AssayPublished by Springer Science and Business Media LLC ,2012
- Roles for MicroRNAs in Conferring Robustness to Biological ProcessesCell, 2012
- Mirtrons: microRNA biogenesis via splicingBiochimie, 2011
- MicroRNAs: Target Recognition and Regulatory FunctionsCell, 2009
- Posttranscriptional Crossregulation between Drosha and DGCR8Cell, 2009
- A Mammalian microRNA Expression Atlas Based on Small RNA Library SequencingCell, 2007
- AU-Rich-Element-Mediated Upregulation of Translation by FXR1 and Argonaute 2Cell, 2007
- Conserved Seed Pairing, Often Flanked by Adenosines, Indicates that Thousands of Human Genes are MicroRNA TargetsCell, 2005