Dicer Proteins

Protein Information

Dicer is a double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) endoribonuclease playing a central role in short dsRNA-mediated post-transcriptional gene silencing. It 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 means to specifically regulate the expression of target genes.

Synonyms

1110006F08Rik; D12Ertd7e; DCR; DCR1; DCR-1; Dicer; dicer 1 ribonuclease III; dicer 1, double-stranded RNA-specific endoribonuclease; dicer 1, ribonuclease III; dicer 1, ribonuclease type III; DICER1; Dicer1, Dcr-1 homolog; Dicer1e; double-strand-specific ribonuclease mDCR-1; endoribonuclease Dicer; Helicase MOI; Helicase with RNase motif; helicase-moi; HERNA; K12H4.8-LIKE; KIAA0928; mKIAA0928; MNG1; RMSE2