Figure 2

Confirmation of miR-130a binding to TSC1 3′UTR. (a) ClustalW alignment to show the conservation of putative miR-130a target sites (TSs) in the 3′UTR of TSC1 across different vertebrate species. (b) Confirmation of miR-130a binding to the TSC1 3′UTR by the dual luciferase reporter assay. Note, a significantly reduced luciferase activity in cells co-transfected with pmiR-130a and p3′UTR-S in comparison with those co-transfected with p3′UTR-S and pcDNA3- EGFP, confirming the binding of miR-130a to the 3′UTR of TSC1. Each bar for luciferase activity is the average of 3 biological replicates. **, p < 0.01; ***, p < 0.001; and ns, non-significant.