Brain-expressed 3′UTR extensions strengthen miRNA cross-talk between ion channel/transporter encoding mRNAs

Why protein-coding genes express transcripts with longer 3′untranslated regions (3′UTRs) in the brain rather than in other tissues remains poorly understood. Given the established role of 3′UTRs in post-transcriptional regulation of transcript abundance and their recently highlighted contributions t...

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Main Authors:	Wehrspaun, Claudia C., Ponting, Chris P., Marques, Ana C.
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Frontiers Media S.A. 2014
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3935148/

id	pubmed-3935148
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-39351482014-03-10 Brain-expressed 3′UTR extensions strengthen miRNA cross-talk between ion channel/transporter encoding mRNAs Wehrspaun, Claudia C. Ponting, Chris P. Marques, Ana C. Genetics Why protein-coding genes express transcripts with longer 3′untranslated regions (3′UTRs) in the brain rather than in other tissues remains poorly understood. Given the established role of 3′UTRs in post-transcriptional regulation of transcript abundance and their recently highlighted contributions to miRNA-mediated cross-talk between mRNAs, we hypothesized that 3′UTR lengthening enhances coordinated expression between functionally-related genes in the brain. To test this hypothesis, we annotated 3′UTRs of human brain-expressed genes and found that transcripts encoding ion channels or transporters are specifically enriched among those genes expressing their longest 3′UTR extension in this tissue. These 3′UTR extensions have high density of response elements predicted for those miRNAs that are specifically expressed in the human frontal cortex (FC). Importantly, these miRNA response elements are more frequently shared among ion channel/transporter-encoding mRNAs than expected by chance. This indicates that miRNA-mediated cross-talk accounts, at least in part, for the observed coordinated expression of ion channel/transporter genes in the adult human brain. We conclude that extension of these genes' 3′UTRs enhances the miRNA-mediated cross-talk among their transcripts which post-transcriptionally regulates their mRNAs' relative levels. Frontiers Media S.A. 2014-02-26 /pmc/articles/PMC3935148/ /pubmed/24616735 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2014.00041 Text en Copyright © 2014 Wehrspaun, Ponting and Marques. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Wehrspaun, Claudia C. Ponting, Chris P. Marques, Ana C.
spellingShingle	Wehrspaun, Claudia C. Ponting, Chris P. Marques, Ana C. Brain-expressed 3′UTR extensions strengthen miRNA cross-talk between ion channel/transporter encoding mRNAs
author_facet	Wehrspaun, Claudia C. Ponting, Chris P. Marques, Ana C.
author_sort	Wehrspaun, Claudia C.
title	Brain-expressed 3′UTR extensions strengthen miRNA cross-talk between ion channel/transporter encoding mRNAs
title_short	Brain-expressed 3′UTR extensions strengthen miRNA cross-talk between ion channel/transporter encoding mRNAs
title_full	Brain-expressed 3′UTR extensions strengthen miRNA cross-talk between ion channel/transporter encoding mRNAs
title_fullStr	Brain-expressed 3′UTR extensions strengthen miRNA cross-talk between ion channel/transporter encoding mRNAs
title_full_unstemmed	Brain-expressed 3′UTR extensions strengthen miRNA cross-talk between ion channel/transporter encoding mRNAs
title_sort	brain-expressed 3′utr extensions strengthen mirna cross-talk between ion channel/transporter encoding mrnas
description	Why protein-coding genes express transcripts with longer 3′untranslated regions (3′UTRs) in the brain rather than in other tissues remains poorly understood. Given the established role of 3′UTRs in post-transcriptional regulation of transcript abundance and their recently highlighted contributions to miRNA-mediated cross-talk between mRNAs, we hypothesized that 3′UTR lengthening enhances coordinated expression between functionally-related genes in the brain. To test this hypothesis, we annotated 3′UTRs of human brain-expressed genes and found that transcripts encoding ion channels or transporters are specifically enriched among those genes expressing their longest 3′UTR extension in this tissue. These 3′UTR extensions have high density of response elements predicted for those miRNAs that are specifically expressed in the human frontal cortex (FC). Importantly, these miRNA response elements are more frequently shared among ion channel/transporter-encoding mRNAs than expected by chance. This indicates that miRNA-mediated cross-talk accounts, at least in part, for the observed coordinated expression of ion channel/transporter genes in the adult human brain. We conclude that extension of these genes' 3′UTRs enhances the miRNA-mediated cross-talk among their transcripts which post-transcriptionally regulates their mRNAs' relative levels.
publisher	Frontiers Media S.A.
publishDate	2014
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3935148/
_version_	1612062000177741824

Brain-expressed 3′UTR extensions strengthen miRNA cross-talk between ion channel/transporter encoding mRNAs

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