Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER SEVEN
A miR Image of Stem Cells and
Their Lineages
Rui Yi
*
and Elaine Fuchs
†
Contents
1. Introduction
176
177
2. The Discovery of miRs and Their Roles in Caenorhabditis elegans
178
3. The Biogenesis Pathways of miR
4. Mammalian Skin as a Model to Uncover How miRs Regulate Stem
Cell Biology and Tissue Morphogenesis
180
5. Insights into the Global Role of miRs in the Skin Epithelium:
Conditional Ablation of Dicer
181
6. Conditional Ablation of Dgcr8
184
7. Dissecting the Complexities of the Differential Expression of
miRs in Skin
184
186
8. miR-203 as a Tumor Suppressor?
9. Characterizing and Defining the Functions of Specific miRs that
are Differentially Expressed by HF Stem Cells
187
10. Delving Further into miR Functions in Stem Cells: The
Hematopoietic System
188
190
11. miR Function in Neural Stem Cells
12. miR Function in Muscle Stem Cells
191
191
13. miR Function in Cancer Stem Cells
14. Closing Remarks and Future Challenges
193
Acknowledgments
195
References
195
Abstract
MicroRNAs (miRs) comprise a class of tiny (
19-24 nucleotide), noncoding
RNAs that regulate gene expression posttranscriptionally. Since the discovery
of the founding members lin-4 and let-7 as key regulators in the developing
nematode, miRs have been found throughout the eukaryotic kingdom. Func-
tions for miRs are wide-ranging and encompass embryogenesis, stem cell
* Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado at Boulder,
Boulder, Colorado, USA
{
Laboratory of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The
Rockefeller University, New York, USA
