Poster abstracts

Poster number 20 submitted by Jey Sabith Ebron

3′ UTR context dependent differential expression of miRNA targeted genes

Jeysabith Ebron (Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, Cleveland State University), Jagjit Singh (Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, Cleveland State University), Kavleen Sikand (Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, Cleveland State University), Andrew Sedowski (Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, Cleveland State University), Jinani E Slaibi (Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, Cleveland State University), Girish C. Shukla (Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, Cleveland State University)

Abstract:
Noncoding microRNAs (miRNA) constitute less than 1% of all human genes and have been implicated in regulatory control of a large number of human genes. Although a lot is known about the miRNA biogenesis and function, a clear understanding of the control of translational repression mediated by miRNAs by targeting 3′ untranslated region (UTR) of mRNAs has remained elusive. A single miRNA has potential to target multiple genes or bind to multiple sites within one target mRNA. Similarly, many miRNAs have potential to target one mRNA. However, how miRNA and target mRNA hybrids and their surrounding sequences and structures play a role in translational repression and/or target mRNA stability is not clear. This study is aimed at understanding the control of miR 488* targeted gene expression by using a 3′ UTR target library constructed in luciferase reporter. Our data show that the miRNA exerts different levels of repression in different 3′ UTR context, and bioinformatic studies confirm that the numbers of binding sites are proportional to the level of repression.

Keywords: miRNA, 3-UTR