RNA Editing and Small Regulatory RNAs
Bjorn-Erik Wulff and Kazuko Nishikura
from: RNA Editing: Current Research and Future Trends (Edited by: Stefan Maas). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2013)
Abstract
Adenosine-to-inosine (A-to-I) editing of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) is catalyzed by members of the adenosine deaminase acting on RNA (ADAR) family, which is conserved from man to sea anemone. It has recently become clear that the most common substrates of ADARs are non-coding RNAs, including small regulatory RNAs like microRNAs (miRNAs), short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and endogenous siRNAs (esiRNAs). These mediate post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) by base pairing to complementary transcripts. This review discusses the effects ADARs exert on small regulatory RNA pathways and the resulting biological consequences. This discussion includes how ADAR substrate specificity is controlled, how ADARs both edit and sequester substrates, how ADARs affect the miRNA pathway by editing miRNA targets and efforts to discover novel edited adenosines affecting small regulatory RNA pathways read more ...
