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A role of microRNA in the regulation of hTERT expression?
Author(s) -
Yeh YuanMing,
Huang PeiRong,
Wang TzuChien
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.24.1_supplement.649.3
Subject(s) - microrna , telomerase reverse transcriptase , translation (biology) , luciferase , untranslated region , biology , messenger rna , telomerase , three prime untranslated region , gene expression , post transcriptional regulation , regulation of gene expression , gene , microbiology and biotechnology , genetics , transfection
Micro (mi)RNAs are small noncoding RNAs that control gene expression post‐transcriptionally either via the degradation of target mRNAs or the inhibition of protein translation. Each miRNA is believed to regulate the expression of multiple mRNA targets and many miRNAs have been linked to tumorgenesis, differentiation, immune system and cell death. Since the telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) is an important gene involved in the development of cancers, we investigated whether or not hTERT may be regulated by miRNAs. A search for the presence of targeting sites in the 3’UTR of hTERT mRNA by TargetScan and Miranda algorithm has uncovered a number of miRNAs may contain putative binding sequences. Among them, seven miRNAs (miR‐138, miR‐181c1, miR‐363, miR‐512‐5p, miR‐548a‐3p, miR‐632, and miR‐648) that contain two or more than two putative binding sites were examined in this study to evaluate their effect on the translation of a luciferase reporter which contain the 3’UTR sequence of hTERT mRNA at the 3’ end of luciferase gene. Our preliminary results indicated that none of the 7 miRNAs tested had any significant effect on the expression of luciferase, suggesting that the 3’UTR of hTERT mRNA may not be the target of regulation by miRNAs. This study was supported by research grants EMRPD 180091 and CMRPD 170541.