TY - JOUR
T1 - Human natural killer cell microRNA
T2 - Differential expression of MIR181A1B1 and MIR181A2B2 genes encoding identical mature microRNAs
AU - Presnell, S. R.
AU - Al-Attar, A.
AU - Cichocki, F.
AU - Miller, J. S.
AU - Lutz, C. T.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited.
PY - 2015/1/24
Y1 - 2015/1/24
N2 - Natural killer (NK) and T lymphocytes share many properties, yet only NK cells respond rapidly to infection and cancer without pre-activation. We found that few microRNAs (miRNAs) differed significantly between human NK and T cells. Among those miRNAs, miR-181a and miR-181b levels rose during NK cell differentiation. Prior studies indicate that miR-181a and miR-181b are critical for human NK cell development and are co-transcribed from genes on chromosome 1 (MIR181A1B1) and on chromosome 9 (MIR181A2B2). We mapped human MIR181A1B1 and MIR181A2B2 transcription start sites to 78.3 kb and 34.0 kb upstream of the mature miRNAs, generating predominantly unspliced transcripts of 80-127 kb and ∼60 kb, respectively. Unlike mouse thymocytes, human T cells expressed both MIR181A1B1 and MIR181A2B2. We tested the hypothesis that NK cells differentially transcribe the two genes during development and in response to immune regulatory cytokines. During NK-cell differentiation, MIR181A2B2 expression rose markedly and exceeded that of MIR181A1B1. TGF-β treatment increased NK-cell MIR181A2B2 transcription, whereas IL-2, IL-15 and IL-12/IL-18 treatments upregulated MIR181A1B1. The MIR181A2B2 promoter was strongly transactivated by SMAD3 and SMAD4 transcription factors, suggesting that TGF-β signaling upregulates MIR181A2B2 expression, at least in part, through SMAD-dependent promoter activation.
AB - Natural killer (NK) and T lymphocytes share many properties, yet only NK cells respond rapidly to infection and cancer without pre-activation. We found that few microRNAs (miRNAs) differed significantly between human NK and T cells. Among those miRNAs, miR-181a and miR-181b levels rose during NK cell differentiation. Prior studies indicate that miR-181a and miR-181b are critical for human NK cell development and are co-transcribed from genes on chromosome 1 (MIR181A1B1) and on chromosome 9 (MIR181A2B2). We mapped human MIR181A1B1 and MIR181A2B2 transcription start sites to 78.3 kb and 34.0 kb upstream of the mature miRNAs, generating predominantly unspliced transcripts of 80-127 kb and ∼60 kb, respectively. Unlike mouse thymocytes, human T cells expressed both MIR181A1B1 and MIR181A2B2. We tested the hypothesis that NK cells differentially transcribe the two genes during development and in response to immune regulatory cytokines. During NK-cell differentiation, MIR181A2B2 expression rose markedly and exceeded that of MIR181A1B1. TGF-β treatment increased NK-cell MIR181A2B2 transcription, whereas IL-2, IL-15 and IL-12/IL-18 treatments upregulated MIR181A1B1. The MIR181A2B2 promoter was strongly transactivated by SMAD3 and SMAD4 transcription factors, suggesting that TGF-β signaling upregulates MIR181A2B2 expression, at least in part, through SMAD-dependent promoter activation.
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U2 - 10.1038/gene.2014.65
DO - 10.1038/gene.2014.65
M3 - Article
C2 - 25410655
AN - SCOPUS:84921496991
SN - 1466-4879
VL - 16
SP - 89
EP - 98
JO - Genes and Immunity
JF - Genes and Immunity
IS - 1
ER -