Int J Biol Sci 2015; 11(3):345-352. doi:10.7150/ijbs.10921 This issue Cite
Review
1. Guangdong Key Laboratory of Age-Related Cardiac and Cerebral Diseases, Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical College, Zhanjiang 524001, China;
2. Institute of Neurology, Guangdong Medical College, Zhanjiang 524001, China;
3. Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical College, Zhanjiang 524001, China;
4. Department of Cardiology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150001, China.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have recently emerged as fundamental post-transcriptional regulators inhibit gene expression linked to various biological processes. MiR-206 is one of the most studied and best characterized miRNA to date, which specifically expressed in skeletal muscle. In this review, we summarized the results of studies of miR-206 with emphasis on its function in skeletal muscle development. Importantly, dysregulation of miR-206 has been linked to many disorders in skeletal muscle such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and circulating miR-206 has highlighted its potential as a diagnose biomarker. In addition, a mutation in the 3' untranslated region (3'-UTR) of the myostatin gene in the Texel sheep creating a target site for the miR-206 and miR-1 leads to inhibition of myostatin expression, which likely to cause the muscular hypertrophy phenotype of this breed of sheep. Therefore, miR-206 may become novel target for ameliorating skeletal muscle-related disorders and optimization of muscle quantity of domestic animals.
Keywords: miR-206, skeletal muscle, development, disease