Talk Title :
MicroRNAs and Stable Marriages
Date / Time / Location:
Friday October 21st, 2011 – 4:00 pm
Room 232, Leacock Building
McGill University
855 Sherbrooke Street West
Affiliation :
IRIC, DIRO — Université de Montréal
URL
François Major
Abstract :
Protein levels determine cell types and states. In eucaryotes, one of the mechanisms that control protein output is driven by microRNAs (miRNAs). Mature miRNAs are about 22-nucleotide long RNAs. They are loaded in and guide miRNA-induced silencing complexes (miRISCs) to bind to complementary sites in mRNAs. MiRISCs compete for mRNAs, and can work cooperatively to repress their translation in protein products. Therefore, the miRtargetome in a cell type or state, i.e. which miRNAs target which mRNAs, depends on the expressed miRNAs and mRNAs in it. In this presentation, I will describe an algorithm we developed to mimic miRISC competition and cooperation to predict miRtargetomes by cell types. I will also describe a series of biological consequences of miRNA-controlled protein output we derived by simulating the overexpression of single miRNAs in the K562 cell line. MiRNA levels vary in different cell types and states, including carcinomas. Understanding how miRNA levels affect protein output via miRtargetomes can thus explain how miRNA levels control cell differentiation and induce cancer development and progression.