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
Review
. 2015 Jul;16(7):417-30.
doi: 10.1038/nrm3994. Epub 2015 May 28.

Swiss army knives: non-canonical functions of nuclear Drosha and Dicer

Kaspar Burger  1 , Monika Gullerova  1
Affiliations
Review

Swiss army knives: non-canonical functions of nuclear Drosha and Dicer

Kaspar Burger et al. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2015 Jul.

Abstract

The RNase III enzymes Drosha and Dicer are essential for the production of small non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs). In canonical RNAi, microRNAs (miRNAs) regulate gene expression by post-transcriptional gene silencing. In non-canonical RNAi, nuclear RNAi factors generate small ncRNAs that are essential for transcriptional gene silencing. Recent evidence points to the existence of additional non-canonical nuclear RNAi functions in various organisms, including in genome maintenance and editing, as well as in DNA repair. Drosha and Dicer directly regulate gene expression and RNA metabolism at different stages, such as transcriptional initiation and termination, and the processing of various RNA species, including pre-mRNAs. Furthermore, Dicer isoforms were recently discovered and attributed with roles in apoptosis, development and disease.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2014 Aug;15(8):525-35 - PubMed
    1. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2011 May;12(5):283-94 - PubMed
    1. Cell. 2012 Mar 16;148(6):1172-87 - PubMed
    1. Nucleic Acids Res. 2011 Jun;39(11):4875-89 - PubMed
    1. Cell. 2002 Sep 20;110(6):689-99 - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources