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. 2009 Mar 18;37(8):2419–2433. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkp145

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© 2009 The Author(s)

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Figure 1. — The miRNA biogenesis in metazoans. The figure shows two major pathways for metazoan miRNA biogenesis. The pri-miRNA is indicated as a polycistronic transcript. The stem–loops are cleaved by Drosha in the nucleus giving rise to the pre-miRNA. Alternatively, the pre-miRNA can originate from a particular kind of intron—the mirtron. The pre-miRNA is shown with a red strand (the mature miRNA) and a yellow strand (the miRNA*). The pre-miRNA is then exported by Exp5 and processed by Dicer in the cytosol. The red strand of the resulting duplex is integrated in the miRISC and the yellow strand is degraded. Depending on the degree of complementarity to the target site, the silencing complex will either cleave the mRNA inducing immediate degradation or promote translational attenuation. The mechanism of translational attenuation can also subsequently promote target degradation.