Poster abstracts

Poster number 15 submitted by Jagjit Singh

Evidence that the 5’ Splice Site mutations of a MicroRNA Coding Intron modulate the target mRNA expression.

Jagjit Singh (BGES, Cleveland State University), Neha Aggarwal (BGES, Cleveland State University), Kavleen Sikand (BGES, Cleveland State University), Girish C. Shukla (BGES, Cleveland State University)

Abstract:
A large number of microRNAs (miRNAs) are encoded in introns of protein coding genes. The processing of these miRNAs takes place from the primary and precursor stem Loop expressed cotranscriptional with the host precursor mRNA. Experimental evidence, thus far suggest that miRNA processing is independent of the host pre-mRNA processing. Previous these studies overlooked the pre-mRNA processing and its subtle effect on mature miRNA production and target mRNA expression. In this study, we investigated if mutations in the 5’ splice site of a miRNA intron influence the production of the mature resident miRNA and alter its target gene expression. We generated a series of point mutations starting from the position 1 to 7 of MYH6 intron 29 which host miR208a. Our preliminary data indicated that 5’ splice site mutations affects the mature miRNA production and its target mRNA modulation in vivo.

Keywords: intronic microRNAs, MYH-6, splicing