Isolating and screening subcellular miRNAs in neuron

Abstract

Since local protein synthesis is proposed to explain spatial and temporal regulation of gene expression in highly polarized cells such as neurons, various mechanisms for regulating protein synthesis are suggested. Among them, microRNA (miRNA) is one of the key regulators for protein synthesis in the synaptic area. As miRNAs can selectively repress mRNA translation with sequence-specific manner, profiling of miRNAs located in synaptic area has been an important topic to understand the function of neuronal miRNAs. Interestingly, many miRNAs are detected in the synaptic area, but their subcellular distribution in neuron varies. This suggests that there are cellular mechanisms actively regulating miRNA expression and localization in subcellular compartments of neurons. In this chapter, we review currently available methods of synaptic miRNA profiling from isolating samples, purifying RNAs, and measuring expression.