MicroRNAs coordinately regulate protein complexes

作者：Sass Steffen; Dietmann Sabine; Burk Ulrike; Brabletz Simone; Lutter Dominik; Kowarsch Andreas; Mayer Klaus F; Brabletz Thomas; Ruepp Andreas; Theis Fabian^*; Wang Yu

来源：BMC Systems Biology, 2011, 5(1): 136.

DOI：10.1186/1752-0509-5-136

Background: In animals, microRNAs (miRNAs) regulate the protein synthesis of their target messenger RNAs (mRNAs) by either translational repression or deadenylation. miRNAs are frequently found to be co-expressed in different tissues and cell types, while some form polycistronic clusters on genomes. Interactions between targets of co-expressed miRNAs (including miRNA clusters) have not yet been systematically investigated.
Results: Here we integrated information from predicted and experimentally verified miRNA targets to characterize protein complex networks regulated by human miRNAs. We found striking evidence that individual miRNAs or coexpressed miRNAs frequently target several components of protein complexes. We experimentally verified that the miR-141-200c cluster targets different components of the CtBP/ZEB complex, suggesting a potential orchestrated regulation in epithelial to mesenchymal transition.
Conclusions: Our findings indicate a coordinate posttranscriptional regulation of protein complexes by miRNAs. These provide a sound basis for designing experiments to study miRNA function at a systems level.

• 出版日期2011-8-25