Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 11, 2026

mRNA Interactome Capture from Plant Protoplasts
Published on: July 28, 2017
Pre-microRNA processing activity in nuclear extracts from Arabidopsis suspension cells
1Division of Plant and Microbial Sciences, Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, 2-1-2 Kannondai Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8602, Japan. myoshika@affrc.go.jp.
Abstract:
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in a variety of biological phenomena, such as development and responses to abiotic and biotic stresses, by regulating complementary target transcripts. Primary MIRNA transcripts (pri-miRNAs) are processed into miRNA/miRNA* duplexes via pre-miRNA intermediates by DICER family proteins. In plants miRNA/miRNA* duplexes are produced from pri-miRNAs exclusively by a complex containing DICER-LIKE1 (DCL1), Hyponastic leaves1 (HYL1) and SERREATE (SE) in the nucleus. Pri-miRNA or pre-miRNA processing activity has been detected using recombinant DCL1, HYL1 and SE proteins expressed in insect cells and immunopurified DCL1-HYL1-SE-containing complexes that transiently co-overexpressed in Nicotiana benthamiana. However, the processing of pre-miRNAs into miRNA/miRNA* using nuclear extracts has not been reported. Here I report the detection of pre-miRNA processing in nuclear extracts prepared from Arabidopsis suspension cells. In the nuclear extracts including DCL1, small RNAs that were 21 nucleotides in length were excised from a part of miRNA/miRNA* regions on pre-miRNAs. This system is potentially useful for in vitro analyses of pre-miRNA processing.
Related Concept Videos
pre-mRNA Processing
Once about 20-40 ribonucleotides have been joined together by RNA polymerase, a group of enzymes adds a “cap” to the 5’ end of the growing transcript. In this process, a 5’ phosphate is replaced by modified guanosine that has a methyl group attached to it (7-Methyl...
MicroRNAs
MicroRNAs
Pre-mRNA Processing: Modification of pre-mRNA Ends
Once about 20-40 ribonucleotides have been joined together by RNA polymerase, a group of enzymes adds a cap to the 5' end of the growing transcript. In this process, a 5' phosphate is replaced by modified guanosine that has a methyl group attached (7-methyl guanosine). This 5' cap helps...
Nuclear Export of mRNA

