Methylation as a crucial step in plant microRNA biogenesis

Bin Yu; Zhiyong Yang; Junjie Li; Svetlana Minakhina; Maocheng Yang; Richard W. Padgett; Ruth Steward; Xuemei Chen

doi:10.1126/science.1107130

Methylation as a crucial step in plant microRNA biogenesis

Bin Yu, Zhiyong Yang, Junjie Li, Svetlana Minakhina, Maocheng Yang, Richard W. Padgett, Ruth Steward, Xuemei Chen

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

927 Scopus citations

Abstract

Methylation on the base or the ribose is prevalent in eukaryotic ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs) and is thought to be crucial for ribosome biogenesis and function. Artificially introduced 2′-O-methyl groups in small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) can stabilize siRNAs in serum without affecting their activities in RNA interference in mammalian cells. Here, we show that plant microRNAs (miRNAs) have a naturally occurring methyl group on the ribose of the last nucleotide. Whereas methylation of rRNAs depends on guide RNAs, the methyltransferase protein HEN1 is sufficient to methylate miRNA/miRNA* duplexes. Our studies uncover a new and crucial step in plant miRNA biogenesis and have profound implications in the function of miRNAs.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	932-935
Number of pages	4
Journal	Science
Volume	307
Issue number	5711
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1107130
State	Published - Feb 11 2005

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title = "Methylation as a crucial step in plant microRNA biogenesis",

abstract = "Methylation on the base or the ribose is prevalent in eukaryotic ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs) and is thought to be crucial for ribosome biogenesis and function. Artificially introduced 2′-O-methyl groups in small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) can stabilize siRNAs in serum without affecting their activities in RNA interference in mammalian cells. Here, we show that plant microRNAs (miRNAs) have a naturally occurring methyl group on the ribose of the last nucleotide. Whereas methylation of rRNAs depends on guide RNAs, the methyltransferase protein HEN1 is sufficient to methylate miRNA/miRNA* duplexes. Our studies uncover a new and crucial step in plant miRNA biogenesis and have profound implications in the function of miRNAs.",

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AU - Yu, Bin

AU - Yang, Zhiyong

AU - Li, Junjie

AU - Minakhina, Svetlana

AU - Yang, Maocheng

AU - Padgett, Richard W.

AU - Steward, Ruth

AU - Chen, Xuemei

PY - 2005/2/11

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Methylation as a crucial step in plant microRNA biogenesis

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