Gene regulatory activity of newly discovered small RNA species in Drosophila melanogaster

siRNAs and miRNAs are well-characterized small regulatory RNAs in eukaryotic organisms. In Drosophila melanogaster, the miRNA and RNAi pathways are distinct from one another, despite being principally similar in their involvement of Dicer and Argonaute proteins for mounting repression. Interestingly...

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Main Author: Leong, Onn Kit
Other Authors: School of Biological Sciences
Format: Final Year Project (FYP)
Language:English
Published: 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10356/60771
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author Leong, Onn Kit
author2 School of Biological Sciences
author_facet School of Biological Sciences
Leong, Onn Kit
author_sort Leong, Onn Kit
collection NTU
description siRNAs and miRNAs are well-characterized small regulatory RNAs in eukaryotic organisms. In Drosophila melanogaster, the miRNA and RNAi pathways are distinct from one another, despite being principally similar in their involvement of Dicer and Argonaute proteins for mounting repression. Interestingly, there exist many small RNAs that seem to impinge upon components of both pathways for biogenesis, as identified by small RNA libraries recently constructed from deep sequencing of Argonaute-bound RNAs from wild type and mutant flies. The present project identifies which well-established siRNA/miRNA processing factors are required for biogenesis of two selected DCR2-dependent, AGO1-loaded RNA candidate miRNA-like hairpins that are transcribed from the 3’UTR of known mRNA genes. Through knockdown, Luciferase assay and Northern blot analysis, we found out that processing of one of these novel hairpins (Glut4EF) requires a mix of factors from both miRNA/RNAi pathway, including Drosha, Pasha, DCR1, DCR2, Loqs and AGO1. Unexpectedly, we found that the Glut4EF hairpin can directly regulate host gene expression via a Drosha-dependent, RISC-independent manner. Results of this study fundamentally raises more questions than answers, but provides evidence for a novel small RNA processing pathway for these small RNA species and sets the momentum for future studies on such hairpins.
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spelling ntu-10356/607712023-02-28T18:06:45Z Gene regulatory activity of newly discovered small RNA species in Drosophila melanogaster Leong, Onn Kit School of Biological Sciences Temasek Laboratories Katsutomo Okamura DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences::Genetics siRNAs and miRNAs are well-characterized small regulatory RNAs in eukaryotic organisms. In Drosophila melanogaster, the miRNA and RNAi pathways are distinct from one another, despite being principally similar in their involvement of Dicer and Argonaute proteins for mounting repression. Interestingly, there exist many small RNAs that seem to impinge upon components of both pathways for biogenesis, as identified by small RNA libraries recently constructed from deep sequencing of Argonaute-bound RNAs from wild type and mutant flies. The present project identifies which well-established siRNA/miRNA processing factors are required for biogenesis of two selected DCR2-dependent, AGO1-loaded RNA candidate miRNA-like hairpins that are transcribed from the 3’UTR of known mRNA genes. Through knockdown, Luciferase assay and Northern blot analysis, we found out that processing of one of these novel hairpins (Glut4EF) requires a mix of factors from both miRNA/RNAi pathway, including Drosha, Pasha, DCR1, DCR2, Loqs and AGO1. Unexpectedly, we found that the Glut4EF hairpin can directly regulate host gene expression via a Drosha-dependent, RISC-independent manner. Results of this study fundamentally raises more questions than answers, but provides evidence for a novel small RNA processing pathway for these small RNA species and sets the momentum for future studies on such hairpins. Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences 2014-05-30T04:31:59Z 2014-05-30T04:31:59Z 2014 2014 Final Year Project (FYP) http://hdl.handle.net/10356/60771 en Nanyang Technological University 36 p. application/pdf
spellingShingle DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences::Genetics
Leong, Onn Kit
Gene regulatory activity of newly discovered small RNA species in Drosophila melanogaster
title Gene regulatory activity of newly discovered small RNA species in Drosophila melanogaster
title_full Gene regulatory activity of newly discovered small RNA species in Drosophila melanogaster
title_fullStr Gene regulatory activity of newly discovered small RNA species in Drosophila melanogaster
title_full_unstemmed Gene regulatory activity of newly discovered small RNA species in Drosophila melanogaster
title_short Gene regulatory activity of newly discovered small RNA species in Drosophila melanogaster
title_sort gene regulatory activity of newly discovered small rna species in drosophila melanogaster
topic DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences::Genetics
url http://hdl.handle.net/10356/60771
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