designing mutant 3'UTR - (May/08/2011 )

Hi all,
Would appreciate if anybody can input comments on the criteria for mutating the seed region of the miRNA. How many bases need to be chnaged minimally to actually consider it to be mutated or see the functional effect?

Thanks in advance
Swati

There is really no standard regarding how many bases you have to change. If you change just one base in the seed region and lose all activity, the target is highly specific. If you change 6 bases and lose 50% of activity, it is also OK to say that the target is a specific one. That said, 4-6 bases are good number to start with.

Thanks for the inputs.