DICER Antibody

This gene encodes a protein possessing an RNA helicase motif containing a DEXH box in its amino terminus and an RNA motif in the carboxy terminus. The encoded protein functions as a ribonuclease and is required by the RNA interference and small temporal RNA (stRNA) pathways to produce the active small RNA component that represses gene expression. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants. [provided by RefSeq, Sep 2010]

Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) endoribonuclease playing a central role in short dsRNA-mediated post-transcriptional gene silencing. Cleaves naturally occurring long dsRNAs and short hairpin pre-microRNAs (miRNA) into fragments of twenty-one to twenty-three nucleotides with 3' overhang of two nucleotides, producing respectively short interfering RNAs (siRNA) and mature microRNAs. SiRNAs and miRNAs serve as guide to direct the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) to complementary RNAs to degrade them or prevent their translation. Gene silencing mediated by siRNAs, also called RNA interference, controls the elimination of transcripts from mobile and repetitive DNA elements of the genome but also the degradation of exogenous RNA of viral origin for instance. The miRNA pathway on the other side is a mean to specifically regulate the expression of target genes.