FIGURE 7.

Summary of miRNA strand selection and regulatory mechanisms. Three major points of regulation for miRNA strand selection (1) altered miRNA processing by the Microprocessor complex (not shown) or Dicer, (2) remodeling of the miRNA duplex by nontemplated RNA modifications such as uridylation or A‐to‐I editing, and (3) changes in the strand preference of Argonaute. Once presented with a miRNA duplex, Argonaute makes a binary choice to load one miRNA strand and discard the other strand from miRISC. Alternate Argonaute programming leads to shifts in the target profile of miRISC based on the seed sequence of the loaded strand and is sometimes associated with human diseases