K.K. Farh et al., "The Widespread Impact of Mammalian microRNAs on mRNA repression and evolution," Science, 310:1817-21, Dec. 16, 2005.

Expression of mRNA carrying the conserved 7 nt sites matching microRNAs can be strong at developmental stages before microRNA expression but is reduced at a later stage. Genes preferentially expressed at the same time and place as microRNAs have evolved to avoid sites matching the miRNAs by adopting non-conserved sites.

Fritz Eckstein
Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine,
Germany

W. Zhai et al., "In vitro analysis of huntingtin-mediated transcriptional repression reveals multiple transcription factor targets," Cell, 123:1241-53, Dec. 29, 2005.

This study is interesting as it provides a mechanistic basis for the gain-of-function mutation of the huntingtin (htt) protein responsible for the neurodegenerative Huntington Disease... The htt protein represses Sp1-dependent transcription by specifically targeting several components of the transcription complex including Sp1, TFIID and TFIIF.

Rivka Dikstein
Weizmann Institute of...

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