For Different Species, Different Functions For Embryonic MicroRNAs

[Achilles Tang]

When evolution has lucked into efficient solutions for life's most fundamental problems, it adopts them as invaluable family heirlooms, passing them down as one species evolves into another. So it was reasonable to expect that a key regulator of embryonic development -- a strand of RNA that shepherds stem cells through the process of differentiation -- might play the same role in all vertebrates, from fish to people. New research, however, has shown that when it comes to microRNAs, what works for one animal may not work the same way in another.

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