Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Aug;36(8):730-5.
doi: 10.1002/bies.201400055. Epub 2014 May 30.

One hundred million adenosine-to-inosine RNA editing sites: hearing through the noise

Randi J Ulbricht  1 , Ronald B Emeson
Affiliations

One hundred million adenosine-to-inosine RNA editing sites: hearing through the noise

Randi J Ulbricht et al. Bioessays. 2014 Aug.

Abstract

The most recent work toward compiling a comprehensive database of adenosine-to-inosine RNA editing events suggests that the potential for RNA editing is much more pervasive than previously thought; indeed, it is manifest in more than 100 million potential editing events located primarily within Alu repeat elements of the human transcriptome. Pairs of inverted Alu repeats are found in a substantial number of human genes, and when transcribed, they form long double-stranded RNA structures that serve as optimal substrates for RNA editing enzymes. A small subset of edited Alu elements has been shown to exhibit diverse functional roles in the regulation of alternative splicing, miRNA repression, and cis-regulation of distant RNA editing sites. The low level of editing for the remaining majority may be non-functional, yet their persistence in the primate genome provides enhanced genomic flexibility that may be required for adaptive evolution.

Keywords: ADAR; Alu; RNA editing; inosine.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Functional roles of A-to-I editing in Alu elements. A: Alu inverted repeat elements (gold) are often present in non-coding regions, such as introns. Intramolecular base paring between Alu repeats results in long stretches of double stranded RNA that are subject to multiple ADAR-catalyzed A-to-I editing events (red dots) throughout its length. B: Exonization model of Alu editing. A-to-I editing may facilitate conversion of non-canonical splice site to an optimal splice signal (the illustrated model suggests conversion from AA to AI to generate a canonical 3’-splice site), thereby allowing alternative splicing of edited transcripts. C: ADAR recruitment model of Alu editing. Extended RNA duplex structures formed by intramolecular base pairing of inverted repeat sequences allow extensive recruitment of ADAR proteins to the Alu-containing transcript, enhancing A-to-I editing at proximal regions that contain non-optimal RNA editing sites. D: Derepression model of Alu editing. RNA editing within the seed region of miRNA binding sites may disrupt small RNA binding in 3’-UTR regions, thereby inhibiting miRNA-mediated repression of translation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Ule J. Alu elements: at the crossroads between disease and evolution. Biochemical Society transactions. 2013;41:1532–1535. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ade C, Roy-Engel AM, Deininger PL. Alu elements: an intrinsic source of human genome instability. Current opinion in virology. 2013;3:639–645. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Schmitz J. SINEs as driving forces in genome evolution. Genome dynamics. 2012;7:92–107. - PubMed
    1. Pullirsch D, Jantsch MF. Proteome diversification by adenosine to inosine RNA editing. RNA biology. 2010;7:205–212. - PubMed
    1. Wahlstedt H, Ohman M. Site-selective versus promiscuous A-to-I editing. Wiley interdisciplinary reviews RNA. 2011;2:761–771. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources