Endocrine Abstracts

MicroRNA is a recently discovered class of non-coding regulatory RNAs. These 21–23 nucleotide long RNA molecules target mRNAs with partial complementarity and suppress their translation therefore represent a new layer of post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. More than 700 miRNAs have been identified in human cells, many of them are conserved but many of them are mammalian, primate or even species specific illustrating that evolution of miRNAs is an ongoing process. Most of the miRNAs show tissue/cell specific expression pattern although some of them are ubiquitously expressed. The talk will summarise the biogenesis of miRNAs and our current knowledge of their role in development and disease.