Zinc Finger, CCHC Domain Containing Protein 11 (ZCCHC11)

Zcchc11 contains RNA-interacting motifs, and has been implicated in signalling pathways involved in cytokine expression. The nature of the Zcchc11 protein and how it influences cytokine expression are unknown. Zcchc11 directs cytokine expression by uridylating cytokine-targeting miRNAs. Zcchc11 is a ribonucleotidyltransferase with a preference for uridine and is essential for maintaining the poly(A) tail length and stability of transcripts for interleukin-6 (IL-6) and other specific cytokines. Whereas 78% of miR-26a sequences in control cells contained 1–3 uridines on their 3' ends, less than 0.1% did so in Zcchc11-knockdown cells. Thus, Zcchc11 fine tunes IL-6 production by uridylating miR-26a, which propose is an enzymatic modification of the terminal nucleotide sequence of mature miRNA as a means to regulate gene expression.