The miR-24 microRNA precursor is a small non-coding RNA

Non-coding RNA

A non-coding RNA is a functional RNA molecule that is not translated into a protein. Less-frequently used synonyms are non-protein-coding RNA , non-messenger RNA and functional RNA . The term small RNA is often used for short bacterial ncRNAs...

 molecule that regulates gene expression. microRNAs are transcribed as ~70 nucleotide

Nucleotide

Nucleotides are molecules that, when joined together, make up the structural units of RNA and DNA. In addition, nucleotides participate in cellular signaling , and are incorporated into important cofactors of enzymatic reactions...

 precursors and subsequently processed by the Dicer

Dicer

Dicer is an endoribonuclease in the RNase III family that cleaves double-stranded RNA and pre-microRNA into short double-stranded RNA fragments called small interfering RNA about 20-25 nucleotides long, usually with a two-base overhang on the 3' end...

 enzyme to give a mature ~22 nucleotide product. In this case the mature sequence comes from the 3' arm of the precursor. The mature products are thought to have regulatory roles through complementarity to mRNA. miR-24 has been identified in human and mouse.

Targets of miR-24

• Lal et al. suggested that miR-24 suppresses the tumor suppressor p16
  P16
  P16, P-16, or P.6 may refer to:* p16 , also known as p16Ink4A, a gene involved in tumor suppression* AMC Schneider P 16, a French halftrack developed in the 1920s...
  
  (INK4a).
• Wang et al.. have shown that miR-24 reduces the mRNA and protein levels of human ALK4 by targeting the 3'-untranslated region of mRNA.
• Mishra et al. suggest that miR-24 targets the DHFR gene.

External links

• miRBase family MIPF0000041