MicroRNAs: fine tuning of erythropoiesis

Marcin Listowski,Kazimierz Kuliczkowski,Aleksander Sikorski,Beata Machnicka,Dżamila Bogusławska,Elżbieta Heger,Jacek Leluk

doi:10.2478/s11658-012-0038-z

Abstract

Cell proliferation and differentiation is a complex process involving many cellular mechanisms. One of the best-studied phenomena in cell differentiation is erythrocyte development during hematopoiesis in vertebrates. In recent years, a new class of small, endogenous, non-coding RNAs called microRNAs (miRNAs) emerged as important regulators of gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. Thousands of miRNAs have been identified in various organisms, including protozoa, fungi, bacteria and viruses, proving that the regulatory miRNA pathway is conserved in evolution. There are many examples of miRNA-mediated regulation of gene expression in the processes of cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis, and in cancer genesis. Many of the collected data clearly show the dependence of the proteome of a cell on the qualitative and quantitative composition of endogenous miRNAs. Numerous specific miRNAs are present in the hematopoietic erythroid line. This review attempts to summarize the state of knowledge on the role of miRNAs in the regulation of different stages of erythropoiesis. Original experimental data and results obtained with bioinformatics tools were combined to elucidate the currently known regulatory network of miRNAs that guide the process of differentiation of red blood cells.Electronic Supplementary MaterialSupplementary material is available for this article at 10.2478/s11658-012-0038-z and is accessible for authorized users.

Highlights

MiRNAs varying in length from 21 to 26 nucleotides regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally by controlling mRNA translation or stability in the cytosol [1]. miRNA-mediated repression of gene expression occurs via the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) with the miRNAs acting as a matrix that guides the complex to the target mRNA
The described phenomena of RNA interference (RNAi) prove that the role of RNA in the cell is not restricted to protein synthesis or stabilization of multi-enzyme complexes
Non-coding RNAs decide about the time, place and order of genes to be expressed. miRNAs are one of the most interesting parts of the RNAi mechanism to which small interfering RNA (siRNA) [39], ha-siRNA [40, 41], ta-siRNA [42], nat-siRNA [43], scn-siRNA [44] and piwi-interacting RNA (piRNA) [45] belong

Summary

Introduction

MiRNAs varying in length from 21 to 26 nucleotides regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally by controlling mRNA translation or stability in the cytosol [1]. miRNA-mediated repression of gene expression occurs via the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) with the miRNAs acting as a matrix that guides the complex to the target mRNA. The cluster miR-17-92 is homologous to the miR-106a~363 cluster on the X chromosome and the miR-106b~25 cluster on chromosome 7 (5 in mice), but neither of them is transcribed in the erythroid precursor cell line. According to the available published data and miRBase, there are 19 examples of mature miRNAs that can be products of different hairpin precursors, encoded by separate loci in the human genome

Results

Conclusion