The catalytic activity of microRNA Argonautes plays a modest role in microRNA star strand destabilization in <i>C. elegans</i>.

ABSTRACT: Many Argonaute proteins can cleave RNA ("slicing") as part of the microRNA-induced silencing complex (miRISC), even though miRNA-mediated target repression is generally independent of target cleavage. Here we use genome editing in C. elegans to examine the role of miRNA-guided slicing in organismal development. In contrast to previous work, slicing-inactivating mutations did not interfere with normal development when introduced by CRISPR. We find that unwinding and decay of miRNA star strands is weakly defective in the absence of slicing, with the largest effect observed in embryos. Argonaute-Like Gene 2 (ALG-2) is more dependent on slicing for unwinding than ALG-1. The miRNAs that displayed the greatest (albeit minor) dependence on slicing for unwinding tend to form stable duplexes

SUBMITTER: Kotagama K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9882359 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature