遺伝遺伝学: 現在の研究

概要

Roles of miRNAs in Early Embryonic Development of Drosophila melanogaster

Shigeru Takasaki

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small (~24 nucleotides) noncoding RNA molecules thought to play an important role in regulating gene expression. Although knowledge of the biological functions of most miRNAs is still limited, miRNAs are thought to regulate the gene expressions in embryo development. Since cis-regulatory elements regulate the gene expression in the early embryonic development of Drosophila melanogaster, this paper analyzes the relations between the nucleotide sequences of D. melanogaster miRNAs and cis-regulatory elements bcd, hb, eve, Kr, and gt genes. Finding from consensus sequences that individual miRNAs are closely related to the 5’ upstream regions of these genes, the paper proposes that miRNA mediates inquiries and responses in regulatory interactions between genes. This paper also analyzes the relations between the frequency probabilities of miRNA consensus sequences and random sequences in the 5’ upstream regions of the target genes and shows that the probabilities of consistencies between individual miRNAs and 5’ upstream regions are greater than those expected for same-length sequences with random nucleotide frequencies. These results thus imply that some miRNAs are closely related to the 5’ upstream regions of certain genes and play important roles in the regulation of gene expression during the embryonic development of D. melanogaster.