AUTHOR=Doyle Francis , Tenenbaum Scott A. TITLE=Trans-regulation of RNA-binding protein motifs by microRNA JOURNAL=Frontiers in Genetics VOLUME=5 YEAR=2014 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/genetics/articles/10.3389/fgene.2014.00079 DOI=10.3389/fgene.2014.00079 ISSN=1664-8021 ABSTRACT=

The wide array of vital functions that RNA performs is dependent on its ability to dynamically fold into different structures in response to intracellular and extracellular changes. RNA-binding proteins regulate much of this activity by targeting specific RNA structures or motifs. One of these structures, the 3-way RNA junction, is characteristically found in ribosomal RNA and results from the RNA folding in cis, to produce three separate helices that meet around a central unpaired region. Here we demonstrate that 3-way junctions can also form in trans as a result of the binding of microRNAs in an unconventional manner with mRNA by splinting two non-contiguous regions together. This may be used to reinforce the base of a stem-loop motif being targeted by an RNA-binding protein. Trans interactions between non-coding RNA and mRNA may be used to control the post-transcriptional regulatory code and suggests a possible role for some of the recently described transcripts of unknown function expressed from the human genome.