MicroRNAs Traced Back A Billion Years
Wednesday, October 1, 2008 - 14:28
in Biology & Nature
MicroRNAs, the tiny molecules that fine-tune gene expression, were first discovered in 1993, but it turns out they've been around for a billion years. Evidence published in Nature by scientists in the lab of Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research Member and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator David Bartel provides a window into the early evolution of these key regulators, placing their origin within the earliest of animal lineages. The research also suggests that microRNAs present early on have undergone extensive changes, which likely have altered their functions across various lineages. Read More...
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