Adaptive evolution of testis-specific, recently evolved, clustered miRNAs in Drosophila.

ABSTRACT: The propensity of animal miRNAs to regulate targets bearing modest complementarity, most notably via pairing with miRNA positions ∼2-8 (the "seed"), is believed to drive major aspects of miRNA evolution. First, minimal targeting requirements have allowed most conserved miRNAs to acquire large target cohorts, thus imposing strong selection on miRNAs to maintain their seed sequences. Second, the modest pairing needed for repression suggests that evolutionarily nascent miRNAs may generally induce net detrimental, rather than beneficial, regulatory effects. Hence, levels and activities of newly emerged miRNAs are expected to be limited to preserve the status quo of gene expression. In this study, we unexpectedly show that Drosophila testes specifically express a substantial miRNA population th

SUBMITTER: Mohammed J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4105746 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature