Description
Using anti-Argonaute (anti-AGO) antibody co-immunoprecipitation, followed by microarray analyses and downstream bioinformatics, RIP-Chip experiments enable direct analyses of miRNA targets. The analyses support four major findings: (i) RIP-Chip studies correlated with total input mRNA profiling provides more comprehensive information than using either RIP-Chip or total mRNA profiling alone after miRNA transfections; (ii) new data confirm that miR-107 paralogs target coding sequence (CDS) of mRNA; (iii) biochemical and computational studies indicate that the 3 portion of miRNAs plays a role in guiding miR-103/7 to the CDS of targets; and (iv) there are major sequence-specific targeting differences between miRNAs in terms of CDS versus 3-untranslated region targeting, and stable AGO association versus mRNA knockdown. For detailed protocol and for full discussion of the results please see Nelson PT et al, Nucleic Acids Res. 2011 Oct;39(18):8163-72.