DROSHAとは 意味・読み方・使い方

Drosha is a Class 2 RNase III enzyme responsible for initiating the processing of microRNA (miRNA), or short RNA molecules naturally expressed by the cell that regulate a wide variety of other genes by interacting with the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) to induce cleavage of complementary messenger RNA (mRNA). A microRNA molecule is synthesized as a long RNA primary transcript known as a pri-miRNA, which is cleaved by Drosha to produce a characteristic stem-loop structure of about 70 base pairs long, known as a pre-miRNA. Drosha exists as part of a protein complex called the Microprocessor complex, which also contains the double-stranded RNA binding protein Pasha (also called DGCR8)., which is essential for Drosha activity and is capable of binding single-stranded fragments of the pri-miRNA that are required for proper processing. Human Drosha was cloned in 2000, when it was identified as a nuclear dsRNA ribonuclease involved in the processing of ribosomal RNA precursors. Drosha was the first human RNase III enzyme identified and cloned. The other two human enzymes that participate in the processing and activity of miRNA are the Dicer and Argonaute proteins.