Regulation of functional machinery of small RNAs

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project Area: Functional machinery for non-coding RNAs
• Project/Area Number: 21115004
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (Research in a proposed research area)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Review Section: Biological Sciences
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: UI-TEI Kumiko 東京大学, 理学(系)研究科(研究院), 准教授 (50213327)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): NISHIMURA Yukiko 東京大学, 分子細胞生物学研究所, 特任助教 (30514567) ; YAMASHITA Akio 横浜市立大学, 医学部, 講師 (20405020) ; ODA Takeaki 東京大学, 分子細胞生物学研究所, 研究員 (00608523)
• Project Period (FY): 2009-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: small RNA / small interfering RNA / microRNA / TNRC6A / TRBP / PACT / thermodynamics / base-pairing

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Small interfering RNA (siRNA) or microRNA (miRNA), approximately 20 nucleotides in length, directs the posttranscriptional repression of protein-coding genes in metazoans. In human cells, more than 1,500 miRNAs have been identified and predicted to regulate the activity of a great number of protein-coding genes to control many developmental and cellular processes, such as proliferation, apoptosis, differentiation, and neural functions; they are dysregulated in tumors and function as tumor suppressors or oncogenes. In the present study, we revealed the functional machinery of small RNAs by determining small RNA-mediated silencing efficacy using thermodynamics of base-pairing or by analyzing interacting mechanism of RNA binding proteins with small RNAs.

Free Research Field

Genome Information Biology