Dicer processes microRNAs (miRs) into active forms in a wide variety of tissues, including the liver. To determine the role of Dicer in liver regeneration, we performed a series of in vivo and in vitro studies in a murine 2/3 hepatectomy model. Dicer was downregulated after 2/3 hepatectomy, and loss of Dicer inhibited liver regeneration associated with decreased cyclin A2 and miR-221, as well a...

BACKGROUND The germ plasm has long been demonstrated to be necessary and sufficient for germline determination, with translational regulation playing a key role in the process. Beyond this, little is known about molecular activities underlying germline determination. RESULTS We report the function of Drosophila PIWI, DICER-1, and dFMRP (Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein) in germline determ...

BACKGROUND Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is one of the most important causes of pediatric hospital admissions in the developed world. The ribonuclease Dicer is an important regulator of gene expression and cellular function via RNA interference, and may also have anti-viral functions. A previous microarray analysis of the cord blood of 5 patients with RSV disease suggested downregulation of...

There is increasing evidence indicating that the production of small regulatory RNAs is not the only process in which ribonuclease Dicer can participate. For example, it has been demonstrated that this enzyme is also involved in chromatin structure remodelling, inflammation and apoptotic DNA degradation. Moreover, it has become increasingly clear that cellular transcript and protein levels of D...

The RNaseIII-containing enzyme Dicer is believed to be required for the processing of most, if not all, microRNAs (miRNAs) and for processing long dsRNA into small interfering RNAs. Because the complete loss of Dicer in both zebrafish and mice results in early embryonic lethality, it has been impossible to determine what role, if any, Dicer has in patterning later tissues in the developing vert...

The ribonuclease III enzyme Dicer is essential for the processing of micro-RNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) from double-stranded RNA precursors. miRNAs and siRNAs regulate chromatin structure, gene transcription, mRNA stability, and translation in a wide range of organisms. To provide a model system to explore the role of Dicer-generated RNAs in the differentiation of mammalian...

Repair of damaged DNA relies on the recruitment of DNA repair factors in a well orchestrated manner. As a prerequisite, the chromatin needs to be decondensed by chromatin remodelers to allow for binding of repair factors and for DNA repair to occur. Recent studies have implicated members of the SWI/SNF and INO80 families as well as PARP1 in nucleotide excision repair (NER). In this study, we re...

BACKGROUND Dicer, an RNAse III endonuclease critical for processing of pre-microRNAs (miRNAs) into mature 22-nucleotide miRNAs, has proven a useful target to dissect the significance of miRNAs biogenesis in mammalian biology. METHODS AND RESULTS To circumvent the embryonic lethality associated with germline null mutations for Dicer, we triggered conditional Dicer loss through the use of a tam...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs that regulate gene expression by binding to the cellular transcript leading to translational repression or degradation of the target mRNA. Dicer and Drosha are the miRNA processing enzymes that are required for the maturation of miRNAs. Here, we investigated the role of Dicer and Drosha for angiogenesis. Endothelial cells were transfected with siRNA a...

The accessibility of chromatin is an essential feature of DNA templated processes such as DNA replication, transcription and DNA repair. The chromatin condensation state, and thus accessibility, is modulated by a variety of chromatin remodeling complexes [1] as well as epigenetic components; for instance by bridging gene regulatory elements [2]. More recently, the function of ncRNAs in regulati...