The EMBO Journal discusses the current state of RNA research and presents a series of review articles throughout 2023 that will cover various aspects of RNA biology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Cochlear implant (CI) recipients with normal or near normal hearing (NH) in the contralateral ear, referred to as single-sided deafness (SSD), experience significantly better speech recognition in noise with their CI than without it, although reported outcomes vary. One possible explanation for differences in outcomes across studies could be differences in the spatial configurations used to assess performance. This study compared speech recognition for different spatial configurations of the target and masker, with test materials used clinically.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLong noncoding RNAs (LncRNAs) have emerged as a diverse class of functional molecules that contribute to nearly every facet of mammalian cardiac development and disease. Recent examples show that lncRNAs can be important co-regulators of cardiac patterning and morphogenesis and modulators of the pathogenic signaling that drives heart disease. The flexibility and chemical nature of RNA allows lncRNAs to utilize diverse mechanisms, mediating their effects through their sequence, structure, and molecular interactions with DNA, protein, and other RNAs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLooking back at the journal's first issue in January 1982 provides an opportunity to reflect on its historical development and to introduce upcoming initiatives.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMyocardin, a potent coactivator of serum response factor (SRF), competes with ternary complex factor (TCF) proteins for SRF binding to balance opposing mitogenic and myogenic gene programs in cardiac and smooth muscle. Here we identify a cardiac lncRNA transcribed adjacent to , named CARDINAL, which antagonizes SRF-dependent mitogenic gene transcription in the heart. -deficient mice show ectopic TCF/SRF-dependent mitogenic gene expression and decreased cardiac contractility in response to age and ischemic stress.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicropeptides function as master regulators of calcium-dependent signaling in muscle. Sarco/endoplasmic reticulum Ca ATPase (SERCA), the membrane pump that promotes muscle relaxation by taking up Ca into the sarcoplasmic reticulum, is directly inhibited by three muscle-specific micropeptides: myoregulin (MLN), phospholamban (PLN), and sarcolipin (SLN). The widespread and essential function of SERCA across diverse cell types has raised questions as to how SERCA is regulated in cells that lack MLN, PLN, and SLN.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHAND2 is an ancestral regulator of heart development and one of four transcription factors that control the reprogramming of fibroblasts into cardiomyocytes. Deletion of Hand2 in mice results in right ventricle hypoplasia and embryonic lethality. Hand2 expression is tightly regulated by upstream enhancers that reside within a super-enhancer delineated by histone H3 acetyl Lys27 (H3K27ac) modifications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
August 2016
Innervation of skeletal muscle by motor neurons occurs through the neuromuscular junction, a cholinergic synapse essential for normal muscle growth and function. Defects in nerve-muscle signaling cause a variety of neuromuscular disorders with features of ataxia, paralysis, skeletal muscle wasting, and degeneration. Here we show that the nuclear zinc finger protein ZFP106 is highly enriched in skeletal muscle and is required for postnatal maintenance of myofiber innervation by motor neurons.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFunctional micropeptides can be concealed within RNAs that appear to be noncoding. We discovered a conserved micropeptide, which we named myoregulin (MLN), encoded by a skeletal muscle-specific RNA annotated as a putative long noncoding RNA. MLN shares structural and functional similarity with phospholamban (PLN) and sarcolipin (SLN), which inhibit SERCA, the membrane pump that controls muscle relaxation by regulating Ca(2+) uptake into the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe basolateral complex of the amygdala (BLA) plays a role in the modulation of emotional memory consolidation through its interactions with other brain regions. In rats, memory enhancing infusions of the β-adrenergic receptor agonist clenbuterol into the BLA immediately after training enhances expression of the protein product of the immediate early gene Arc in the dorsal hippocampus and memory-impairing intra-BLA treatments reduce hippocampal Arc expression. We have proposed that the BLA may modulate memory consolidation through an influence on the local translation of synaptic plasticity proteins, like Arc, in recently active synapses in efferent brain regions.
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