Fig. 2: Non-AGO bound small RNAs at their endogenous levels do not repress luciferase reporters of fully complementary sequence.

A Relative activity of fully complementary luciferase reporters co-transfected with their specific miRNA mimics (A, in mesHMLE cells) or inhibitors (B, C, in HMLE and mesHMLE cells, respectively). Assays were performed with multiple replication with the values of independent biological replicates shown as dots. Relative luciferase activities were determined 48 h post-transfection. Pairwise t tests (comparing the mimic or inhibitor relative to the corresponding negative control) are shown: *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001. Read counts (cpm) of RNAs from the whole cell sequencing (bars) in both (D), HMLE and (E), mesHMLE cells. Green dots indicate relative AGO binding efficiency. All miRNAs to the right of the dotted line are true, well established miRNAs and included as positive controls.