Fig. 1.

The potential effect of mutations on the functionality of miRNA genes (expression, precursor structure and processing, miRNA generation and target recognition). A) A schematic representation of the miRNA gene (above) and canonical miRNA precursor (below), with indicated miRNA precursor subregions and functional elements. B-G) Different effects of miRNA gene mutations. Positions of miRNA mutations are indicated as red lollipop symbols. The effect of the mutation on miRNA precursor structure (B), regulatory protein binding sites (C), DROSHA/DICER1 cleavage sites and precision of miRNA processing (D), 5p/3p strand balance (E), target recognition and creation of the new targets (F), and transcription of miRNA genes (G). (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)