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. 2010 Jul 22;6(7):e1001031. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1001031

Figure 1. Requirement of a bulge at the cleavage site for target mimicry.

Figure 1

(A) A target mimic with an unmodified central sequence (MIM172cs), which retained complementarity to the central portion of miR172 across the cleavage site (red line) opposite position 10 to 11 of the miRNA, did not change flowering time. Modification of the central sequence (TCTA to GAGT; MIM172) restored a three nucleotide bulge found in IPS1 and generated a functional target mimic, causing a delay in flowering. However, a single nucleotide mismatch introduced into the center of an authentic miR172 target site (MIM172sn), but without a bulge, was not sufficient to reduce miR172 activity. (B) Four-week old plants grown at 23°C in long days. MIM172cs and MIM172sn are phenotypically indistinguishable from wild-type Col-0 plants (see also Figure S1B). (C) Distribution of flowering times of primary transformants grown in the same conditions; compare with Col-0 plants transformed with an empty binary vector in Figure S2.