Identification of mechanism(s) of miRNA- mediated repression of translation

最近，一种全新的控制基因表达的方法被发现。这是在发现了一类全新的基因后才发现的，这些基因由非常小的RNA分子组成，与大多数基因不同，它们不产生蛋白质。在人类基因组中至少有800个这样的小RNA分子，它们具有不同的作用。它们通过与其他基因的mRNA结合并抑制靶基因合成蛋白质来发挥作用。这800个小分子中的每一个都被认为与100个其他基因相互作用，从而增加了人类基因组调控的复杂性。现在已经很清楚，miRNA调控的功能障碍与越来越多的人类疾病有关，包括癌症、糖尿病和病毒感染。2002年《科学》杂志将miRNA称为年度突破，这些小RNA分子被称为"细胞的暗物质"。目前，科学界对这些小RNA分子如何抑制基因表达存在很大争议。世界各地的实验室已经显示出相互矛盾的数据，这种抑制机制如何运作，并未能复制彼此的数据。我们第一次能够展示这两种抑制机制的运作，并确定这些差异是如何发生的。我们现在处于一个独特的位置，以研究不同的机制，并确定哪些基因是由不同的阻遏系统调节。这将对我们理解基因表达和人类基因组复杂性的方式产生巨大影响。

Recently, a completely new way of controlling gene expression has been identified. This has come to light after the discovery of a whole new class of genes comprising very small RNA molecules, that unlike most genes do not produce proteins. There are at least 800 of these small RNA molecules within the human genome which have different effects. They work by binding to the mRNA of other genes and inhibiting the target genes from being made into proteins. Each of these 800 small molecules is believed to interact with 100 other genes, thus adding to the complexity of the regulation of the human genome. Already it has become clear that malfunction of miRNA regulation is associated with a growing list of human disease, including: cancer; diabetes; and viral infections. In 2002 Science magazine called miRNA the breakthrough of the year and these small RNA molecular have been termed the 'Dark Matter of the cell'. At present there is great controversy within the scientific community over how these small RNA molecules repress gene expression. Laboratories around the world have shown conflicting data for how this repression mechanism functions, and have failed to reproduce each other's data. We have, for the first time, been able to shown both repression mechanisms operating and determined how these difference are occurring. We are now in a unique position to investigate the different mechanisms and to determine which genes are regulated by the different repression systems. This will lead to a great impact on the way in which we understand gene expression and the complexity of the human genome.