JHIBRG: Abstract November 1 2007

During the past few years, there have been many findings in the post-transcriptional regulation mediated by short RNA. RNAi down-regulates translation by cleavage of target mRNA. However, there have been many possible mechanisms reported in the case of miRNA mediated regulation that may or may not invlove mRNA degradation. Furthermore, whether mRNA degradation is the cause or consequence is not entirely clear yet. A recent report suggested that an important element in the pathway, argonaute, binds to the 5' cap of mRNA and therefore interferes with the initiation. Would the finding be a milestone in the miRNA mechanism? The answer might be found not after long.