Freiburg: a novel mechanism for gene regulation

Research lead

Biologists at the University of Freiburg, Germany, led by Wolfgang Frank and Ralf Reski, professor of Plant Biotechnology, have discovered that microRNAs can come into direct contact with genes and inactivate them. It was previously thought that microRNAs were only able to inactivate genes via the effect on messenger RNA.

Active genes are transcribed into messenger RNA that functions as the blueprint for the production of proteins on ribosomes. In 2006 the American biologists Mello and Fire were awarded the Nobel Prize for the discovery that microRNA molecules in the worm C. elegans can attach to messenger RNA and thus hinder its translation into proteins.

The biologists in Freiburg together with researchers from the Max-Planck-Institute for Developmental Biology in Tuebingen have now described how microRNAs not only indirectly turn off genes by obstructing messenger RNA in this way, but can also turn off genes directly. In this process the genes are silenced chemically by adding methyl groups.

The researchers discovered this novel mechanism for gene regulation in the moss Physcomitrella patens.