Figure 2
From: Involvement of microRNAs in physiological and pathological processes in the lung
Mechanism of miRNA action on target mRNA. According to the complementarity between miRNA and 3' untranslated region (UTR) of target mRNA, there are two mechanisms of miRNA action: (A) when miRNA is near-perfectly complementary with target mRNA, deadenylation and subsequent degradation of the target mRNA occurs (major mechanism of miRNA action); (B) when miRNA is only partially complementary to its target mRNA, translational inhibition occurs. Adopted from Brodersen et al [24].