Multiple In Vivo Biological Processes Are Mediated by Functionally Redundant Activities of Drosophila mir-279 and mir-996.

ABSTRACT: While most miRNA knockouts exhibit only subtle defects, a handful of miRNAs are profoundly required for development or physiology. A particularly compelling locus is Drosophila mir-279, which was reported as essential to restrict the emergence of CO2-sensing neurons, to maintain circadian rhythm, and to regulate ovarian border cells. The mir-996 locus is located near mir-279 and bears a similar seed, but they otherwise have distinct, conserved, non-seed sequences, suggesting their evolutionary maintenance for separate functions. We generated single and double deletion mutants of the mir-279 and mir-996 hairpins, and cursory analysis suggested that miR-996 was dispensable. However, discrepancies in the strength of individual mir-279 deletion alleles led us to uncover that all extant mir-279

SUBMITTER: Sun K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4456407 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature