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Updated: May 25, 2026

Biotin-based Pulldown Assay to Validate mRNA Targets of Cellular miRNAs
Published on: June 12, 2018
Smad-mediated regulation of microRNA biosynthesis
1Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94158, USA.
Abstract:
microRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs conserved in metazoans. Depletion of miRNAs results in embryonic lethality, suggesting they are essential for embryogenesis. Similarly, pathways induced by growth factors of the transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) superfamily control cell growth, differentiation, and development. Recently Smad proteins, the signal transducers of the TGF-β pathway, were found to regulate miRNA expression, which, in turn, affects expression of numerous proteins. Smads modulate miRNA expression through both transcriptional and post-transcriptional mechanisms illustrating the complexity of gene regulation by TGF-β. In this chapter we summarize the current knowledge of mechanisms underlying Smad-mediated regulation of miRNA biogenesis.
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