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MiRNAs’ Function and Role in Evolution: Under the View of Genomic Enhancement Phenomena

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Genomic Elements in Health, Disease and Evolution

Abstract

Research on miRNAs is continuously progressing, giving exciting results about the nature and the molecular function of these newly emerged RNA molecules. Most of this research has been focused on the role of miRNAs in gene expression regulation of protein-coding genes primarily through direct binding to their 3′ UTR. But the story does not appear to end there for these molecules. There is growing evidence for additional roles of miRNAs, e.g. affecting DNA methylation, gene expression modulation by direct binding to 5′ UTRs and coding region of genes and many others. Due to this broad spectrum of actions evolution and natural selection had to restrict their activity in a relatively narrow way. This is obvious through recently accumulated evidence showing miRNA’s special relationship with genomic dosage events through interactions with various genomic elements such as paralogs genes and copy number variations. This chapter summarizes all the published data that correlate genomic duplications or repeats with miRNAs biogenesis and with their target sites distribution pattern.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Molecular Medicine Research Center, University of Cyprus, Kallipoleos 75, 1678, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Konstantinos Voskarides Ph.D.

  2. Department of Life and Health Sciences, University of Nicosia Medical School, University of Nicosia, 46 Makedonitissas Ave., 1700, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Kyriacos Felekkis B.Sc., Ph.D.

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  1. Konstantinos Voskarides Ph.D.
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  2. Kyriacos Felekkis B.Sc., Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Konstantinos Voskarides Ph.D. or Kyriacos Felekkis B.Sc., Ph.D. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Life and Health Sciences and University of Nicosia Medical School, University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Kyriacos Felekkis

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Molecular Medicine Research Center, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Konstantinos Voskarides

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Voskarides, K., Felekkis, K. (2015). MiRNAs’ Function and Role in Evolution: Under the View of Genomic Enhancement Phenomena. In: Felekkis, K., Voskarides, K. (eds) Genomic Elements in Health, Disease and Evolution. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3070-8_1

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