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Published on: June 12, 2018
Autophagy modulates miRNA-mediated gene silencing and selectively degrades AIN-1/GW182 in C. elegans
1College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, PR China.
Abstract:
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) post-transcriptionally repress gene expression via the miRNA-induced silencing complex (miRISC), which includes miRNA, Argonaute and a GW182 family member. Here we show that in Caenorhabditis elegans, miRNA-mediated gene silencing is modulated by macroautophagy, a lysosome-mediated degradation process. Loss of autophagy activity suppresses developmental defects caused by partially impaired silencing of miRNA targets including the let-7 family and lsy-6. The C. elegans GW182 homolog AIN-1 is itself selectively degraded by autophagy and colocalizes with the p62 homolog SQST-1 in autophagy mutants. Thus, autophagy activity modulates miRNA-mediated gene silencing and degrades a core miRISC component.
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