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One of the major players controlling RNA decay is the cytoplasmic 5'-to-3' exoribonuclease, which is conserved among eukaryotic organisms. In Arabidopsis, the 5'-to-3' exoribonuclease XRN4 is involved in disease resistance, the response to ethylene, RNAi, and miRNA-mediated RNA decay. Curiously, XRN4 appears to display selectivity among its substrates because certain 3' cleavage products formed by miRNA-mediated decay, such as from ARF10 mRNA, accumulate in the xrn4 mutant, whereas others, such as from AGO1, do not. To examine the nature of this selectivity, transcripts that differentially accumulate in xrn4 were identified by combining PARE and Affymetrix arrays. Certain functional categories, such as stamen-associated proteins and hydrolases, were over-represented among transcripts decreased in xrn4, whereas transcripts encoding nuclear-encoded chloroplast-targeted proteins and nucleic acid-binding proteins were over-represented in transcripts increased in xrn4. To ascertain if RNA sequence influences the apparent XRN4 selectivity, a series of chimeric constructs was generated in which the miRNA-complementary sites and different portions of the surrounding sequences from AGO1 and ARF10 were interchanged. Analysis of the resulting transgenic plants revealed that the presence of a 150 nucleotide sequence downstream from the ARF10 miRNA-complementary site conferred strong accumulation of the 3' cleavage products in xrn4. In addition, sequence analysis of differentially accumulating transcripts led to the identification of 27 hexamer motifs that were over-represented in transcripts or miRNA-cleavage products accumulating in xrn4. Taken together, the data indicate that specific mRNA sequences, like those in ARF10, and mRNAs from select functional categories are attractive targets for XRN4-mediated decay.

Regulation of gene expression by small RNAs ( approximately 20-30 nucleotides in length) plays an essential role in developmental pathways and defense responses against genomic parasites in eukaryotes. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) commonly direct the inactivation of cognate sequences through a variety of mechanisms, including RNA degradation, translation inhibition, and transcriptional repression. Recent studies have provided considerable insight into the biogenesis and the mode of action of miRNAs and siRNAs. However, relatively little is known about mechanisms of quality control and small RNA decay in RNA interference (RNAi) pathways. Here we show that deletion of MUT68, encoding a terminal nucleotidyltransferase in the alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, results in elevated miRNA and siRNA levels. We found that MUT68 plays a role in the untemplated uridylation of the 3' ends of small RNAs in vivo and stimulates their degradation by the RRP6 exosome subunit in vitro. Moreover, RRP6 depletion also leads to accumulation of small RNAs in vivo. We propose that MUT68 and RRP6 cooperate in the degradation of mature miRNAs and siRNAs, as a quality control mechanism to eliminate dysfunctional or damaged small RNA molecules.