FIGURE 5:

Model of the interconnections between CBs and the miRNA processing machinery. Although miRNAs were not identified in the coilin interactome (Machyna et al., 2014), we hypothesize that proteins enriched in the CB, such as SMN and coilin, transiently participate in early steps of miRNA and scaRNA biogenesis while Drosha/DGCR8 perform cropping reactions on both primary-miRNAs and certain primary-scaRNAs. We further hypothesize that the activity of Drosha/DGCR8 on primary-scaRNA will indirectly influence snRNP activity by regulating scaRNP levels.