Argonaute proteins are highly conserved in almost all organisms. They not only involve in the biogenesis of small regulatory RNAs, but also regulate gene expression and defend against foreign pathogen invasion via small RNA-mediated gene silencing pathways. As a key player in these pathways, the abnormal expression and/or mis-modifications of Argonaute proteins lead to the disorder of small RNA biogenesis and functions, thus influencing multiply biological processes and disease development, especially cancer. In this review, we focus on the post-translational modifications and novel functions of Argonaute proteins in alternative splicing, host defense and genome editing.
Keywords: AKT3, AKT serine/threonine kinase 3; Argonaute protein; CCR4-NOT, carbon catabolite repressor 4-negative on TATA; CRISPR-Cas9, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-associated protein 9 (cas9); DGCR8, DiGeorge syndrome critical region gene 8; EGFR, epidermal growth factor receptor; GW182 protein, glycine/tryptophan repeats-containing protein with molecular weight of 182 kDa; H3K9, histone H3 lysine 9; Hsp70/90, heat shock proteins 70/90; JEV, Japanese encephalitis virus; KRAS, Kirsten rat sarcoma oncogene; P4H, prolyl 4-hydroxylase; PAM, protospacer adjacent motif; PAZ, PIWI-argonaute-zwille; PIWI, P-element-induced wimpy testis; Post-translational modification; RISCs, small RNA-induced silencing complexes; Small RNA; TRBP, the transactivating response (TAR) RNA-binding protein; TRIM71/LIN41, tripartite motif-containing 71, known as Lin41; WSSV, white spot syndrome virus; miRNAs; piRNAs.
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