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Updated: Jun 24, 2025

mirMachine: A One-Stop Shop for Plant miRNA Annotation
Published on: May 1, 2021
Principles of miRNA/miRNA* function in plant MIRNA processing
Santiago Rosatti1, Arantxa M L Rojas1, Belén Moro1,2
1Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario (IBR), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) and Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Rosario, Santa Fe, 2000, Argentina.
Abstract:
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are essential regulators of gene expression, defined by their unique biogenesis, which requires the precise excision of the small RNA from an imperfect fold-back precursor. Unlike their animal counterparts, plant miRNA precursors exhibit variations in sizes and shapes. Plant MIRNAs can undergo processing in a base-to-loop or loop-to-base direction, with DICER-LIKE1 (DCL1) releasing the miRNA after two cuts (two-step MIRNAs) or more (sequential MIRNAs). In this study, we demonstrate the critical role of the miRNA/miRNA* duplex region in the processing of miRNA precursors. We observed that endogenous MIRNAs frequently experience suboptimal processing in vivo due to mismatches in the miRNA/miRNA* duplex, a key region that fine-tunes miRNA levels. Enhancing the interaction energy of the miRNA/miRNA* duplex in two-step MIRNAs results in a substantial increase in miRNA levels. Conversely, sequential MIRNAs display distinct and specific requirements for the miRNA/miRNA* duplexes along their foldback structure. Our work establishes a connection between the miRNA/miRNA* structure and precursor processing mechanisms. Furthermore, we reveal a link between the biological function of miRNAs and the processing mechanism of their precursors with the evolution of plant miRNA/miRNA* duplex structures.
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