Mir-16 Micro RNA Precursor Family - Gene Targets

Gene Targets

In the original publication which identified the action of miR15 and miR16 in the development of B-CLL, Calin and colleagues proposed that miR16 could be the targets with imperfect base pairing for 14 genes. Increased CD5+ B-lymphocytes in CLL suggests the miR16 may be involved in cellular differentiation. In animal models single-stranded microRNA species act by binding to imperfect mRNA complements, typically to the 3' UTR, although targets have also been observed in the coding sequence of the mRNA. Downregulation of miR16 (as well as miR15) was observed in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. miR16 has been shown to bind to a nine base pair to a complementary sequence in the 3' UTR region of BCL2, which is an anti-apoptotic gene involved in an evolutionarily conserved pathway in programmed cell death.