
Individual small RNAs are responsible for controlling the expression of gonadoliberin or GnRH (Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone), a neurohormone that controls sexual maturation, the appearance of puberty, and fertility in adults. This has just been demonstrated by the “Development and Plasticity of the Neuroendocrine Brain” team led by Vincent Prévot, Inserm Research Director (Jean-Pierre Aubert Research Centre, Lille). The involvement of microRNAs, transcribed from DNA, occurs around birth, and marks a key step in postnatal development. Failure of these microRNAs to act leads to the disruption or even total cessation of GnRH production by the hypothalamic neurons that synthesise it, and hence to infertility. In the most serious cases, sterility may result. Details of this work in mice are published in the 2 May 2016 issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience.