Competing Endogenous RNA: The Key to Posttranscriptional Regulation
Figure 1
Determinants of ceRNA activity. (a) The direct and indirect linkage between ceRNAs in a network of four ceRNAs. ceRNA 1 and ceRNA 2 are directly linked by the common miRNA, miRNA 1, and ceRNA 2 and ceRNA 3 are linked by the common miRNA, miRNA 2. ceRNA 1 and ceRNA 3 are indirectly linked through ceRNA 2. (b) The effect of concentration of individual ceRNAs. ceRNA 2 has a higher level of expression than ceRNA 1 which drives the shared miRNAs more towards ceRNA 2 leaving ceRNA 1 free of repression. (c) The effect of number of MREs on ceRNAs for shared miRNAs. ceRNA 2 has more target sites for the shared miRNA (red) than ceRNA 1 so that the miRNA is more attracted to ceRNA 2. It results in increased ceRNA effect of ceRNA 2 on ceRNA 1.
