Figure 3.

Canonical pathway of miRNA biogenesis. Following transcription from the viral genome, precursor miRNA is processed by the Drosha complex to remove the 5′ cap and poly-A tail to yield a precursor miRNA transcript in its classical stem-loop structure. Following nucleocytoplasmic export, the precursor miRNA transcript is acted upon by the Dicer complex, which removes the stem-loop sequence to yield a duplexed precursor miRNA transcript. The duplex dissociates into two strands, one of which is degraded and one that produces a unique mature miRNA. Depending on the miRNA locus, however, the duplex precursor can also dissociate into two unique, matured miRNAs (which is the case for many EBV miRNAs; see Table 2). Mature miRNAs subsequently are localized to their area of function for targeting. Figure adapted from [82].