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🔪 A food cutter 🧬 A gene enzyme
dicer

dicer

1 8.7
A protein in cells that cuts long RNA into short pieces to stop genes working
  • noun
  • /ˈdaɪsər/
  • Specialized
translation icon : dicer
  • The Dicer enzyme is essential for processing RNA molecules into functional forms necessary for gene silencing.

Examples

  • This may also explain the global up-regulation of miRNA expression levels in ER+ cancer observed by Blenkiron et al. since Dicer is significantly up-regulated.

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  • In this study, we have shown that the activity of miRNAs is stronger in ER- than ER+ cancer and that Dicer is targeted and suppressed to a lower level in ER- compared to ER+ cancers.

    Blog text (18)

  • Another possible explanation for the low expression of Dicer in ER-cancers may be the regulatory effect of miRNAs.

    Blog text (18)

  • In our study, Dicer is significantly down-regulated in ER- compared to ER+ cancers (see next section for details).

    Blog text (18)

  • Weisen et al. 56 reported that type I interferon represses Dicer.

    Blog text (18)

  • For example, many studies have suggested that the expression levels of Dicer, the key gene in the generation of microRNAs, vary in different cancer subtypes 53-55.

    Blog text (18)

  • However, several key microRNA processing genes, especially Ago2 and Dicer, were differentially expressed between ER- and ER+ breast cancer, which may explain the different regulatory effects of microRNAs in these two breast cancer subtypes.

    Blog text (18)

  • Assembly of human RISC minimally requires AGO2, DICER, and TRBP, among which AGO2 is the catalytic engine owing to its endonuclease activity, and the DICER-TRBP complex acts simply as a platform.

    Blog text (18)

  • In the process of gene regulation, the enzyme Dicer plays a crucial role by cutting long double-stranded RNA into small interfering RNAs.

  • Researchers found that the activity of Dicer was reduced in cancer cells, impairing their ability to regulate gene expression.

Synonyms

RNase
vsdicer
  • Slang
1 9.1

A protein that breaks the RNA in cells into small pieces

is specialized to produce short interfering RNAs from long double stranded RNA
ribonuclease
vsdicer
  • Specialized
9.4

A protein that breaks RNA into smaller pieces

is a specific enzyme that cuts double stranded RNA into siRNAs for gene silencing

Surface Forms

dicer singular
dicers plural

Morphology

dicer = dice (semi-transparent) = dice + er

Formed from 'dice' + '-er' by metaphorical extension to a scientific enzyme that 'dices' RNA; the lexical relation is clear but the specialized biological sense is not obvious to general learners.

Etymology

Dicer in biology is named after the verb to dice, which means 'to cut into small pieces', because this enzyme cuts long RNA strands into short fragments, so its name shows its cutting job.