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Assembling RISC in humans

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15.12.2005

Drs. Elisavet Maniataki and Zissimos Mourelatos (UPENN School of Medicine) report on the pathway of human RISC assembly from pre-microRNAs (miRNAs), highlighting important differences from the siRNA-fueled RISC assembly pathway in Drosophila.

The authors identified a protein complex between Dicer and Argo2 – the "microRNA loading complex" (miRLC) – that lacks miRNAs. Without a requirement for ATP, miRLC catalyzes RISC assembly and disassembly to release the miRNP.

"This study demonstrates that, in humans, pre-miRNA processing is coupled with RISC/miRNP assembly and involves a preformed protein complex that catalyzes all steps that constitute the cytoplasmic phase of RNAi," explains Dr. Mourelatos.

Heather Cosel | Source: EurekAlert!
Further information: www.cshl.edu

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