Figure 1

The biochemical degradation network hypothesized by Braun et al. [15] for the degradation of a target mRNA by miRNA in D. melanogaster S2 cells. According to this network, the mRNA in its initial state (green circle) first binds to the miRISC complex thus leading to a new biochemical state (black circle). The miRISC and its target then recruit the proteins NOT1 and/or PAN3, leading to the two states indicated with the blue and yellow circle, respectively. From these two states the mRNA is finally degraded through a complex sequence of events including deadenylation followed by decapping [3]. This unspecified sequence of events is indicated with dotted arrows in all figures of this paper.