Mechanistic aspects of miRNA turnover in neurons

MANUEL DE LA MATA, WITOLD FILIPOWICZ AND HELGE GROSSHANS

Basilea

Simposio; 7th Microsymposium on Small RNAs; 2012

Increasing evidence indicates that the development and function of the nervous system is dependent on the spatiotemporal expression of a wide repertoire of microRNAs. In dendrites of mature neurons, local post-synaptic translation seems to have a particularly important role in synaptic plasticity and memory. MicroRNAs have been shown to regulate local protein translation at neuronal dendrites, but  little is known about its mechanism and functional relevance. Intriguingly, the turnover of microRNAs is greatly accelerated in neurons relative to most cell types, and this property is dependent on neuron activity. Here we propose to investigate the potential role of target mRNAs in reciprocally regulating microRNA degradation in neurons. Whereas canonically, microRNAs silence their target mRNAs, recent work has shown that target mRNAs may in turn influence the decay of their cognate microRNAs. I propose that in neurons, where such mutual regulation has not yet been explored, this mechanism might be important for the local role of microRNAs in neuronal processes, potentially implicating them in the regulation of higher cognitive functions.