Drosophila primary microRNA-8 encodes a microRNA-encoded peptide acting in parallel of miR-8

Genome Biology

Philippe Valenti¹  Serge Plaza²  Marielle Aguilar²  Jean-Philippe Combier²  Carine Duboe²  Hélène San Clémente²  Audrey Montigny²  Dominique Lauressergues²  Patrizia Tavormina² 

[1] Laboratoire MCD, Centre de Biologie Intégrative, Université de Toulouse 3, CNRS UMR5077, Bat 4R4, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062, Toulouse, France;Laboratoire de Recherche en Sciences Végétales, Université de Toulouse 3, CNRS UMR5546, 31320, Auzeville-Tolosane, France;

关键词: Drosophila;    sORF;    lncRNA;    miR-8;    miPEP;    Small peptides;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s13059-021-02345-8

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundRecent genome-wide studies of many species reveal the existence of a myriad of RNAs differing in size, coding potential and function. Among these are the long non-coding RNAs, some of them producing functional small peptides via the translation of short ORFs. It now appears that any kind of RNA presumably has a potential to encode small peptides. Accordingly, our team recently discovered that plant primary transcripts of microRNAs (pri-miRs) produce small regulatory peptides (miPEPs) involved in auto-regulatory feedback loops enhancing their cognate microRNA expression which in turn controls plant development. Here we investigate whether this regulatory feedback loop is present in Drosophila melanogaster.ResultsWe perform a survey of ribosome profiling data and reveal that many pri-miRNAs exhibit ribosome translation marks. Focusing on miR-8, we show that pri-miR-8 can produce a miPEP-8. Functional assays performed in Drosophila reveal that miPEP-8 affects development when overexpressed or knocked down. Combining genetic and molecular approaches as well as genome-wide transcriptomic analyses, we show that miR-8 expression is independent of miPEP-8 activity and that miPEP-8 acts in parallel to miR-8 to regulate the expression of hundreds of genes.ConclusionTaken together, these results reveal that several Drosophila pri-miRs exhibit translation potential. Contrasting with the mechanism described in plants, these data shed light on the function of yet undescribed primary-microRNA-encoded peptides in Drosophila and their regulatory potential on genome expression.

【 授权许可】

CC BY