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How microRNAs choose their targets

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The growing list of known microRNAs is only as useful as our ability to identify the mRNA targets they control. A new study stresses the role of messenger RNA structure in microRNA target recognition and suggests that binding of the RNA-induced silencing complex is largely controlled by the thermodynamics of RNA-RNA interactions.

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Figure 1: Binding of a microRNA to a messenger RNA is depicted as a two-step process.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ivo L. Hofacker is at the Institute for Theoretical Chemistry, University of Vienna, Währingerstraße 17, A-1090 Wien, Austria. ivo@tbi.univie.ac.at,

    Ivo L Hofacker

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  1. Ivo L Hofacker
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Hofacker, I. How microRNAs choose their targets. Nat Genet 39, 1191–1192 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng1007-1191

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