short 3'UTR - microRNA target (Apr/14/2010 )

Hi,

I'm interested in identifying a microRNA for my gene of interest. However, the 3'UTR is only 31 bp long and the three programs, targetscan, pictar and miranda yeild no predictions.

Does this mean that this gene may not be regulated by microRNA?

Thanks

It has been shown miRNAs do not only target 3'UTR, in some cases they target ORF or promoter region. In certain conditions, miRNA activates gene expression instead of suppression.
By the way, is there any possibility that any splice variants have longer 3'UTR?

Functional Screens on Apr 14 2010, 07:59 PM said:

I like that - switching an ORF into or out of miRNA regulation by alternative splicing of the miRNA recognition element. Slick! Do you know of a case where this has been reported?

Jon Moulton on Apr 15 2010, 11:24 AM said:

Two papers that are quite interesting:

Mol Cell. 2009 Sep 11;35(5):610-25.
miR-24 Inhibits cell proliferation by targeting E2F2, MYC, and other cell-cycle genes via binding to "seedless" 3'UTR microRNA recognition elements.

Science. 2008 Jun 20;320(5883):1643-7.
Proliferating cells express mRNAs with shortened 3' untranslated regions and fewer microRNA target sites.

Actually, make that three papers:

Cell. 2009 Aug 21;138(4):673-84.
Widespread shortening of 3'UTRs by alternative cleavage and polyadenylation activates oncogenes in cancer cells.

miRNA man on Apr 17 2010, 10:26 AM said:

Thanks!

A. Stark et al., Animal MicroRNAs confer robustness to gene expression and have a significant impact on 3′ UTR evolution, Cell 123 (2005), pp. 1133–1146.