DEEP WORK

MicroRNAs (miRNAs), which are approximately 21- nucleotide-long RNA regulators of gene expression1–3, have become a major focus of research in molecular biology. Although for a long time they were considered to be exclusive to multicellular organisms and possibly essential for the transition to a more complex organism design, the recent identification of miRNAs in the unicellular algae Chlamydom..

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short (20–23-nucleotide), endogenous, single-stranded RNA molecules that regulate gene expression1 . Mature miRNAs and Argonaute (Ago) proteins form the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC), a ribonucleoprotein complex mediating posttranscriptional gene silencing2–5. Complementary base-pairing of the miRNA guides RISC to target messenger RNAs, which are degraded, destabili..