miR-TRAP: A Benchtop Chemical Biology Strategy to Identify microRNA Targets

Huricha Baigude, Ahsanullah, Zhonghan Li, Ying Zhou, Tariq M. Rana

It′s a TRAP! microRNAs (miRNAs) are noncoding small RNAs that consist of approximately 21 nucleotides and are assembled into an RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC), which suppresses target mRNA expression. An easy-to-use method called miRNA target RNA affinity purification (miR-TRAP) directly identifies miRNA targets in vivo. This method could be widely used to discover miRNA targets in various disease models under physiological conditions.