ceRNAs: miRNA Target Mimic Mimics

In a recent issue of Cell, four papers described regulatory interactions among messenger RNAs (mRNAs) that share target sequences for the same microRNAs (miRNAs) (Cesana et al., 2011; Karreth et al., 2011; Sumazin et al., 2011; Tay et al., 2011). The authors state that these mRNAs, dubbed “competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs),” define a new layer of regulation of miRNA activity that has only recently been discovered. It may be new for animals and humans, but the principle of this phenomenon had been identified a while ago in plants, where it is known as “target mimicry.”