DROSHA targets its own transcript to modulate alternative splicing.

ABSTRACT: The nuclear RNase III enzyme DROSHA interacts with its cofactor DGCR8 to form the Microprocessor complex, which initiates microRNA (miRNA) maturation by cleaving hairpin structures embedded in primary transcripts. Apart from its central role in the biogenesis of miRNAs, DROSHA is also known to recognize and cleave miRNA-like hairpins in a subset of transcripts without apparent small RNA production. Here, we report that the human DROSHA transcript is one such noncanonical target of DROSHA. Mammalian DROSHA genes have evolved a conserved hairpin structure spanning a specific exon-intron junction, which serves as a substrate for the Microprocessor in human cells but not in murine cells. We show that it is this hairpin element that decides whether the overlapping exon is alternat

SUBMITTER: Lee D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5473138 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature