Specific Effects of MicroRNAs on the Plant Transcriptome

• Published in: Developmental cell 2005-04, Vol.8 (4), p.517-527
• Main Authors: Schwab, Rebecca, Palatnik, Javier F., Riester, Markus, Schommer, Carla, Schmid, Markus, Weigel, Detlef
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Base Pairing; Base Sequence; Biological and medical sciences; Cell differentiation, maturation, development, hematopoiesis; Cell physiology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; MicroRNAs - genetics; MicroRNAs - metabolism; Molecular and cellular biology; Nucleic Acid Conformation; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; Phenotype; Plant Proteins - genetics; Plant Proteins - metabolism; Plants, Genetically Modified; Reproducibility of Results; RNA, Plant - genetics; RNA, Plant - metabolism; Transcription, Genetic
• ISSN: 1534-5807; 1878-1551; 1878-1551
• DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2005.01.018

Most plant microRNAs (miRNAs) have perfect or near-perfect complementarity with their targets. This is consistent with their primary mode of action being cleavage of target mRNAs, similar to that induced by perfectly complementary small interfering RNAs (siRNAs). However, there are natural targets with up to five mismatches. Furthermore, artificial siRNAs can have substantial effects on so-called off-targets, to which they have only limited complementarity. By analyzing the transcriptome of plants overexpressing different miRNAs, we have deduced a set of empirical parameters for target recognition. Compared to artificial siRNAs, authentic plant miRNAs appear to have much higher specificity, which may reflect their coevolution with the remainder of the transcriptome. We also demonstrate that miR172, previously thought to act primarily by translational repression, can efficiently guide mRNA cleavage, although the effects on steady-state levels of target transcripts are obscured by strong feedback regulation. This finding unifies the view of plant miRNA action.