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© The Rockefeller University Press, 0021-9525/2003/5/456 $5.00
The Journal of Cell Biology, Volume 161, Number 3, 456-456

MicroRNAs make big splash in apoptosis

Elimination of bantam expression (green) by an miRNA allows proliferation as illustrated by BrdU incorporation (purple). Brennecke/Elsevier

Hundreds of microRNAs are encoded in animal genomes, yet the function of only two were known until recently. That number has now doubled with the identification of two miRNAs, mir14 and bantam, both of which appear to regulate cell death in Drosophila, according to reports from Peizhang Xu, Bruce Hay (California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA), and colleagues and from Julius Brennecke, David Hipfner, Alex Stark, Rob Russell, and Stephen Cohen (EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany).

Cohen's group went looking for genes involved in growth control using a P-element–based overexpression screen. They found bantam, an miRNA, that when overexpressed causes a suppression of cell death and an increase in cell proliferation.

Using a computer program designed to identify miRNA targets, they found that bantam controls apoptosis by binding to hid mRNA, suppressing its translation and blocking its pro-death activity. They have not yet found the target mRNA involved in the proliferation portion of the bantam phenotype, but they have ruled out a number of the "usual suspects," says Cohen. Identification of miRNA target genes has been a stumbling block thus far in the miRNA field. The group is currently working to further validate their computational method.

Xu et al., on the other hand, found mir14 and several other miRNAs in a large-scale genetic screen designed to identify suppressors of apoptosis. Out of 7,000 chromosomes screened over four years ago, they had ten hits, six of which were proteins and relatively easy to identify. However, the remaining four—all of which now appear to be miRNAs, including bantam and mir14—were initially intractable, says Hay.

He points out that the irony of this story is that the power of genetic screens is to let the organism tell you what is important and to show you novel things. Of course the team knew about miRNAs in C. elegans, but four years ago, they were still "stuck inside the protein box" and didn't seriously consider the possibility that their intractable mutants might be noncoding RNAs. That is, not until RNA silencing and miRNAs became a more familiar concept. "If there is a lesson to be learned," says Hay, "it is to listen harder to what your screens are trying to tell you. This one did exactly what it was supposed to do, we just weren't listening as closely as we should have been."

References:

Brennecke, J., et al. 2003. Cell. 113:25–36.[CrossRef][Medline]

Xu, P., et al. 2003. Curr. Biol. 10.1016/S0960982203002501.

Rabiya S. Tuma

rabiya{at}nasw.org

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This Article Full Text (PDF, 816K) PPT slides of all figures Alert me when this article is cited Services Email this article Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new content in the JCB Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Tuma, R. S. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Tuma, R. S. Social Bookmarking                            What's this?