By chopping up Argonaute proteins from fruit flies and testing each piece individually, the team showed that allostery stimulated tenfold the binding of the Argonaute and miRNA complex to messenger RNA.

The scientists speculate that as a result of being bound, the messenger RNA was prevented from doing its job of delivering a gene's instructions to the ribosome that translates them and manufactures proteins. These studies provide new insights into Argonaute protein function, motivating the next series of questions in the field.

"MicroRNAs are all the rage," Green says. "Suddenly, in the last 10 years, there's this whole set of genes and cellular components that we had no idea existed, and they're ubiquitous. They play roles in all manner of development, and Argonautes are the main class of protein involved in regulating them."

SOURCE Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine