Circular RNA, gene regulator

2013/03/07 Etxebeste Aduriz, Egoitz - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Genetika

Two papers published in the journal Nature (1, 2) clarify that some circular RNAs, until recently almost unknown, participate in the regulation of genes. They act as “sponges” that are absorbed by the modulator called microRNA.

In the last two decades, many new types of RNA have appeared, but almost always linear. The appearance of circular RNAs in plants and animals has been considered as an experimental or genetic error. Conventional sequencing techniques seek some of the “clays” characteristic of the RNA, so it has not contributed to locating circular RNAs either. But the new sequencing techniques have been appearing more and more. And last year, researchers at Stanford University published their human wealth.

Now researchers at the Max Delbrück Center in Berlin and the Aarhus University of Denmark have studied a circular RNA of 1,500 nucleotides and have seen the miR-7 r-7 microRNA. MicroRNA molecules block the genes, so the circular RNA would block the blocker. However, researchers believe that this is no more than an example, and that because there are so many circular RNAs can have many other functions.