Mapping effective microRNA pairing beyond the seed using abasic modifications

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs that regulate gene expression by base-pairing to complementary sites in messenger RNAs (mRNAs). The primary element for site recognition is the seed region (nucleotides 2-8 in the miRNA), but for a minority of sites pairing outside the seed increases efficiency, with the supplementary region (nucleotides 13-16) typically having the greatest impact. However, the structural determinants of effective pairing outside the seed are not fully understood. Here, we use abasic modified nucleotides to disrupt pairing to residues 13 and 14 of miR-34a and measure the effect of this modification compared to wild-type miR-34a on the cellular transcriptome and proteome using RNA-seq and mass spectrometry. We find that a subset of sites with predicted supplementary pairing are affected by miRNA transfection, with up to two-fold decreases in site repression at the mRNA level. We show that miR-34a 3'-pairing is sensitive to GU wobble pairs in a position-specific manner and favors bulges in the miRNA over the target. These results were validated with luciferase reporter assays. Overall, this study demonstrates a novel methodological approach for elucidating the role of specific miRNA residues in target site selection, advancing our understanding of miRNA-mediated gene regulation.