Institute for Integrative Genome Biology

IIGB Associate Professor Xuemei Chen and Assistant Specialist Vanitharani Ramachandran have just published findings in the September 12, 2008 issue of Science  that fills a gap in our knowledge of small RNA metabolism.  Small RNAs are short strands of ribonucleic acids used by plants and animals to regulate diverse biological processes, such as development, maintenance of genome stability, and responses to environmental stresses and pathogen attacks. Understanding how small RNAs are synthesized and degraded is crucial for harnessing the power of small RNAs to develop effective means to treat human diseases and improve agriculture. While it is well known how small RNAs are made, how small RNAs are degraded in vivo is unknown. Researchers Chen and Ramachandran have contributed  to this mystery in their article titled "Degradation of microRNAs by a Family of Exoribonucleases in Arabidopsis" by uncovering a family of enzymes that degrades small RNAs in Arabidopsis (homologs of this family of enzymes are present in humans).  

Knowledge of the small RNA-degrading enzymes can potentially be translated into designing therapeutic small RNAs to treat human diseases.

The full citation for this article is below:

Vanitharani Ramachandran and Xuemei Chen. Degradation of microRNAs by a Family of Exoribonucleases in Arabidopsis. Science 12 September 2008 321: 1490-1492 [DOI: 10.1126/science.1163728] (in Reports)