MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are often hosted in introns of protein-coding genes. Given that the same transcriptional unit can potentially give rise to both miRNA and mRNA transcripts raises the intriguing question of the level of interaction between these processes. Recent studies from transcription, pre-mRNA splicing, and miRNA-processing perspectives have investigated these relationships and yielded interesting, yet somewhat controversial findings. Here we discuss major studies in the field.
