Brain-expressed 3'UTR extensions strengthen miRNA cross-talk between ion channel/transporter encoding mRNAs.

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_7B1959A9296A
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Title
Brain-expressed 3'UTR extensions strengthen miRNA cross-talk between ion channel/transporter encoding mRNAs.
Journal
Frontiers in Genetics
Author(s)
Wehrspaun C.C., Ponting C.P., Marques A.C.
ISSN
1664-8021 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
1664-8021
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2014
Volume
5
Pages
41
Language
english
Abstract
Why protein-coding genes express transcripts with longer 3'untranslated regions (3'UTRs) in the brain rather than in other tissues remains poorly understood. Given the established role of 3'UTRs in post-transcriptional regulation of transcript abundance and their recently highlighted contributions to miRNA-mediated cross-talk between mRNAs, we hypothesized that 3'UTR lengthening enhances coordinated expression between functionally-related genes in the brain. To test this hypothesis, we annotated 3'UTRs of human brain-expressed genes and found that transcripts encoding ion channels or transporters are specifically enriched among those genes expressing their longest 3'UTR extension in this tissue. These 3'UTR extensions have high density of response elements predicted for those miRNAs that are specifically expressed in the human frontal cortex (FC). Importantly, these miRNA response elements are more frequently shared among ion channel/transporter-encoding mRNAs than expected by chance. This indicates that miRNA-mediated cross-talk accounts, at least in part, for the observed coordinated expression of ion channel/transporter genes in the adult human brain. We conclude that extension of these genes' 3'UTRs enhances the miRNA-mediated cross-talk among their transcripts which post-transcriptionally regulates their mRNAs' relative levels.
Pubmed
Open Access
Yes
Create date
27/10/2014 15:44
Last modification date
20/08/2019 15:37
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