Mouse miRNA library to open
Biologists launch knockout resource.
Biologists working with 'knockout' mice that have been genetically engineered to inactivate certain genes are creating a library of knockouts of all microRNAs (miRNA) known in mice.
The collection, an initiative of the Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK, is the first to tackle the nearly 500 miRNAs that scientists have identified in the mouse genome. The resource will eventually be available to all researchers studying the diverse systems affected by these shorts strands of nucleotides that regulate gene expression. Scientists speculate that mice may have more than a thousand miRNAs.
The Sanger project, named µKOMP because it's a micro counterpart to KOMP, the Knockout Mouse Project for protein-coding genes run by the US National Institutes of Health, should help those who are making knockout mice. It will offer the genetic tools and, ultimately, embryonic stem-cell lines for knockout mice.
“This will actually cut out a part of the process,” says Allan Bradley, director of the Sanger Institute. Making a knockout mouse can soak up a year or so of a researcher's time, and cost thousands of pounds with no guarantee of success.
“I wish they had it already,” says Ying-Hui Fu, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco, who wanted to knock out an miRNA gene for her work on circadian rhythms and multiple sclerosis. “More and more, people are realizing almost every biological pathway has miRNA involvement.”
miRNAs regulate protein production in several biological systems and have been implicated in cancer and heart disease. In 2007, four labs simultaneously published reports of the first miRNA knockout mice. Depending on the miRNA deleted, these mice develop immune deficiencies or holes in their hearts.
The Sanger team will make all the knockouts using one method, and in the same strain of mice, so scientists will be able to directly compare different mutations. “That is so important,” Fu says. “Different strain backgrounds sometimes give you totally different results.”
[ 本帖最后由 vnewjay 于 2008-7-17 13:08 编辑 ]
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