Figure 1.
miR-122 precursors are circadian in mouse liver. (A) Northern blot analysis of miR-122 and its precursor RNAs using whole-cell RNA from male C57BL/6 mice sacrificed at the indicated ZT values around the clock. An RNA pool from three mice was used per time point, tRNAThr and rpl19 mRNA served as loading controls in denaturing polyacrylamide (top and middle panels) and agarose gel electrophoresis (bottom panels), respectively. (Top panels) miR-122 and pre-mir-122. (Middle panels) pre-mir-122 and miR-122*. miR-122* is the antisense “passenger strand” that is incorporated into RISC at low levels. (Bottom panels) pri-mir-122. (B, top and middle panels) miR-122, miR-122* and pre-mir-122 levels, normalized to tRNAThr, from Northern blots in which single animals were analyzed (data not shown). Mean values ± SEM. (Bottom panel) Quantification of pri-mir-122 levels, normalized to the circadianly invariant rpl19, from the Northern blot shown in A.