Tripartite Motif Containing Protein 71 (TRIM71)

Interestingly, human TRIM71, an orthologue of C. elegans let-7-target lin-41 gene, can be repressed by hsa-let-7a and hsa-let-7c. This repression was abolished when both predicted let-7 target sites of TRIM71 were mutated. Moreover, the zebrafish lin-41 orthologue was also repressed by let-7 to a similar degree as was TRIM71. When the expression of zebrafish lin-41 orthologue was silenced by microinjection of RNA interference or morpholino into zebrafish zygotes, retarded embryonic development was observed, providing direct evidence for an essential role of lin-41 in zebrafish development. The regulation of TRIM71 expression by let-7 has been evolutionarily conserved and that TRIM71 likely plays an important role in development.