| mir-103/107 microRNA precursor | |
|---|---|
 Predicted secondary structure and sequence conservation of mir-103 | |
| Identifiers | |
| Symbol | mir-103 |
| Rfam | RF00129 |
| miRBase | MI0000109 |
| miRBase family | MIPF0000024 |
| Other data | |
| RNA type | Gene; miRNA |
| Domain | Eukaryota |
| GO | GO:0035195 GO:0035068 |
| SO | SO:0001244 |
| PDB structures | PDBe |
The miR-103 microRNA precursor (homologous to miR-107), is a short non-coding RNA gene involved in gene regulation. miR-103 and miR-107 have now been predicted or experimentally confirmed in human. [1] [2]
microRNAs are transcribed as ~70 nucleotide precursors and subsequently processed by the Dicer enzyme to give a ~22 nucleotide product. In this case the mature sequence comes from the 5' arm of the precursor. The mature products are thought to have regulatory roles through complementarity to mRNA. [3]
mir-103 and mir-107 were noted as being upregulated in obese mice and were subsequently found to have a key role in insulin sensitivity. This led to a suggestion that these microRNAs represent potential targets for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. [4]
mir-103 has also been linked with chronic pain [5] and intestinal cell proliferation. [6]
Recently, miR-103-3p was shown to target the 5' untranslated region (5' UTR) of GPRC5A's mRNA in pancreatic cancer. [7] This is one of only a handful of known instances where a miRNA targets the 5' UTR of a mRNA.