Title:Illuminating microRNA Transcription from the Epigenome
VOLUME: 14 ISSUE: 1
Author(s):Praveen Sethupathy
Affiliation:5091 Genetic Medicine Building, 120 Mason Farm Road, Department of Genetics, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, Carolina Center for Genome Sciences, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
Keywords:Chromatin, complex disease, epigenome, genomics, microRNA, nascent RNA, promoter, transcription
Abstract:Cellular gene expression is governed by a complex, multi-faceted network of regulatory interactions. In the last
decade, microRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as critical components of this network. miRNAs are small, non-coding
RNA molecules that serve as post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression. Although there has been substantive progress
in our understanding of miRNA-mediated gene regulation, the mechanisms that control the expression of the miRNAs
themselves are less well understood. Identifying the factors that control miRNA expression will be critical for further
characterizing miRNA function in normal physiology and pathobiology. We describe recent progress in the efforts to map
genomic regions that control miRNA transcription (such as promoters). In particular, we highlight the utility of large-scale
“-omic” data, such as those made available by the ENCODE and the NIH Roadmap Epigenomics consortiums, for the
discovery of transcriptional control elements that govern miRNA expression. Finally, we discuss how integrative analysis
of complementary genetic datasets, such as the NHGRI Genome Wide Association Studies Catalog, can predict novel
roles for transcriptional mis-regulation of miRNAs in complex disease etiology.
