MicroRNA may have fail-safe role in limb development
University of Florida News - MicroRNA may have fail-safe role in limb development: "Researchers report linking a specific microRNA - miR 196 - to limb development, a finding that may be useful in understanding birth defects.
More specifically, researchers report linking a specific microRNA ? miR 196 ? to limb development, a finding that may be useful in understanding birth defects.
Until about five years ago, genetic researchers focused on DNA, which contains all the genetic instructions for the human body, and RNA, which translates DNA?s message into proteins ? the building blocks of cells, organs and all of the various systems of the body.
Unnoticed next to the main ingredients, microRNAs were considered to be ?junk? DNA, leftovers from millions of years of evolution. More recently, this genetic material is suspected to be part of an intricate mechanism that helps repress about one-third of our 25,000 genes. It has been linked to diabetes, hepatitis C, leukemia, lymphoma and breast cancer.
But only now have microRNAs been connected to actual growth processes.
Scientists do not know exactly what is happening, but they think miR 196 acts as a protective mechanism in the hindlimbs in the event normal gene transcription goes awry.
?A large body of evidence indicates this new class of regulators is not something to turn things off in the first place, but a fail-safe,? said Clifford Tabin, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and senior author of the research."
More specifically, researchers report linking a specific microRNA ? miR 196 ? to limb development, a finding that may be useful in understanding birth defects.
Until about five years ago, genetic researchers focused on DNA, which contains all the genetic instructions for the human body, and RNA, which translates DNA?s message into proteins ? the building blocks of cells, organs and all of the various systems of the body.
Unnoticed next to the main ingredients, microRNAs were considered to be ?junk? DNA, leftovers from millions of years of evolution. More recently, this genetic material is suspected to be part of an intricate mechanism that helps repress about one-third of our 25,000 genes. It has been linked to diabetes, hepatitis C, leukemia, lymphoma and breast cancer.
But only now have microRNAs been connected to actual growth processes.
Scientists do not know exactly what is happening, but they think miR 196 acts as a protective mechanism in the hindlimbs in the event normal gene transcription goes awry.
?A large body of evidence indicates this new class of regulators is not something to turn things off in the first place, but a fail-safe,? said Clifford Tabin, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and senior author of the research."
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