Figure 4.

Regulation of schizophrenia-associated reporter gene constructs by miRNA. (a) Sequence alignment showing miR-107 and the miR-15 family seed region homology (gray highlight). Together, the two groups were predicted to have many target genes in common (Venn diagram). (b) The pMIR-REPORT miRNA expression reporter system contains a firefly luciferase gene under the control of the cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter. Putative miRNA recognition elements for various schizophrenia candidate genes were inserted into the multiple cloning site in the 3′-UTR of the firefly luciferase gene (HTR2A shown as an example). (c) A matrix chart showing the relative activity of reporter gene constructs (x-axis) in response to co-transfected miRNA (dark bars) or their cognate anti-miR (light bars). Relative luciferase activity for each reporter/miRNA/anti-miR combination was expressed as a percentage of the response to scrambled controls (+s.d.; ^*P<0.05).