{"doi":"10.17615/x10d-8p30","title":"Lin-28 interaction with the Let-7 precursor loop mediates regulated microRNA processing","abstract":"A hallmark of mammalian embryonic development is the widespread induction of microRNA (miRNA) expression. Surprisingly, the transcription of many of these small, noncoding RNAs is unchanged through development; rather, a post-transcriptional regulatory event prevents accumulation of the mature miRNA species. Here, we present a biochemical framework for the regulated production of the Let-7 family of miRNAs. Embryonic cells contain a Drosha Inhibitor that prevents processing of the Let-7 primary transcript. This inhibitor specifically binds to conserved nucleotides in the loop region of the Let-7 precursor, and competitor RNAs that mimic the binding site restore Let-7 processing. We have identified the Drosha Inhibitor as the embryonic stem cell specific protein Lin-28. Lin-28 has been previously implicated in developmental regulatory pathways in Caenorhabditis elegans, and it promotes reprogramming of human somatic cells into pluripotent stem cells. Our findings outline a microRNA post-transcriptional regulatory network and establish a novel role for the miRNA precursor loop in the regulated production of mature Let-7.","journal":"UNC Libraries","year":2020,"id":94556,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":38,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9522,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":357096,"name":"J. M. Thomson","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":393791,"name":"S. M. Hammond","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":472235,"name":"M. A. Newman","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T22:33:00.770265Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}