ABSTRACT
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding RNAs of about 22 nucleotides in length, found in most eukaryotes, and are responsible for posttranscriptional regulation. miRNAs bind to a complementary sequence in the 3’-UTR (usually) of its target mRNA. This leads to repression of mRNA translation and/or transcript degradation and thus, gene silencing (Farh et al. 2005). Several laboratories reported around the same time that p53 is responsible for the transcription of specifi c miRNAs. They identifi ed a family of miRNAs, e.g., miR-34, as direct targets of p53 that can mediate cell cycle arrest, apoptosis and senescence (Bommer et al. 2007; Chang et al. 2007; Corney et al. 2007; He et al. 2007; Raver-Shapira et al. 2007; Tarasov et al. 2007; Tazawa et al. 2007).
