PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Wienholds, Erno
AU  - Kloosterman, Wigard P.
AU  - Miska, Eric
AU  - Alvarez-Saavedra, Ezequiel
AU  - Berezikov, Eugene
AU  - de Bruijn, Ewart
AU  - Horvitz, H. Robert
AU  - Kauppinen, Sakari
AU  - Plasterk, Ronald H. A.
TI  - MicroRNA Expression in Zebrafish Embryonic Development
AID  - 10.1126/science.1114519
DP  - 2005 Jul 08
TA  - Science
PG  - 310--311
VI  - 309
IP  - 5732
4099  - http://science.sciencemag.org/content/309/5732/310.short
4100  - http://science.sciencemag.org/content/309/5732/310.full
SO  - Science2005 Jul 08; 309
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs, about 21 nucleotides in length, that can regulate gene expression by base-pairing to partially complementary mRNAs. Regulation by miRNAs can play essential roles in embryonic development. We determined the temporal and spatial expression patterns of 115 conserved vertebrate miRNAs in zebrafish embryos by microarrays and by in situ hybridizations, using locked-nucleic acid–modified oligonucleotide probes. Most miRNAs were expressed in a highly tissue-specific manner during segmentation and later stages, but not early in development, which suggests that their role is not in tissue fate establishment but in differentiation or maintenance of tissue identity.