| Timeline | Who | What | Organism | Reference |
| 1960s | Britten and Davidson | Proposed that "activator" RNAs
transcribed from redundant genomic regions form complexes with regulatory
DNA sequences to activate a battery of protein coding genes. | Eukaryotes | Britten RJ, Davidson EH. Gene regulation for higher cells: a theory Science.
1969 Jul 25;165(891):349-57. |
| 1993 | Ambros Lab | Discovered the first microRNA, lin-4 | C. elegans | Lee RC, Feinbaum RL, Ambros V.
The C. elegans heterochronic gene lin-4 encodes small RNAs with antisense
complementarity to lin-14. Cell. 1993 Dec 3;75(5):843-54. |
| 2000 | Ruvkun Lab | Discovered let-7 microRNA | C. elegans |
Reinhart BJ, Slack FJ, Basson M, Pasquinelli AE, Bettinger JC, Rougvie AE,
Horvitz HR, Ruvkun G. The 21-nucleotide let-7 RNA regulates
developmental timing in Caenorhabditis elegans.
Nature. 2000 Feb 24;403(6772):901-6. |
| 2001 | Bartel Lab
Tuschl Lab
Ambros Lab
| Discovered a large class
of small RNAs with potential regulatory roles and named them microRNA (miRNA) | C. elegans,
invertebrates, vertebrates |
Lau NC, Lim LP, Weinstein EG, Bartel DP. An abundant class of tiny
RNAs with probable regulatory roles in Caenorhabditis elegans.
Science. 2001 Oct 26;294(5543):858-62.
Lagos-Quintana M, Rauhut R, Lendeckel W, Tuschl T. Identification of
novel genes coding for small expressed RNAs. Science. 2001 Oct
26;294(5543):853-8.
Lee RC, Ambros V. An extensive class of small RNAs in Caenorhabditis
elegans. Science. 2001 Oct 26;294(5543):862-4. |
| 2001 | Bartel Lab | Discovered microRNA in plants | Plants |
Reinhart BJ, Weinstein EG, Rhoades MW, Bartel B, Bartel DP. MicroRNAs
in plants. Genes Dev. 2002 Jul 1;16(13):1616-26.
Rhoades MW, Reinhart BJ, Lim LP, Burge CB, Bartel B, Bartel DP.
Prediction of plant microRNA targets. Cell. 2002 Aug 23;110(4):513-20.
|
| 2002 | Croce Lab | Showed that miRNAs are implicated in
cancer because miR15 and miR16 are deleted or downregulated in most
chronic lymphocytic leukemias. | Human |
Calin GA, et al. Frequent deletions and down-regulation of micro- RNA
genes miR15 and miR16 at 13q14 in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Proc Natl
Acad Sci U S A. 2002 Nov 26;99(24):15524-9. |
| 2003 | Stoffel Lab | Silenced miRNAs in vivo using
chemically engineered oligonucleotides, termed 'antagomirs', | Mammals |
Krutzfeldt J, Rajewsky N, Braich R, Rajeev KG, Tuschl T, Manoharan M,
Stoffel M. Silencing of microRNAs in vivo with 'antagomirs'. Nature.
2005 Dec 1;438(7068):685-9. |
