As Sherlock Holmes said, from a drop of water, a thinking and thinking person can logically draw conclusions about the existence of the Black Sea or Niagara Falls, even if he has never seen either one in his life. It's about that any action has results in the future; if there is a cause, then there is a consequence.

This is the meaning of the proverb “they cut down the forest and the chips fly.” True, its meaning shows that the consequence is not always positive.

What do flying chips mean?

Imagine that a forest is being felled. Trees fall one after another, and in the process dust rises and chips of damaged wood fly in all directions. It’s good if they don’t hit anyone, but such a sliver can injure and blind. When they say “they cut down the forest, the chips fly,” the meaning is this: in order to achieve good and desired result, you may have to suffer some damage from the splinters. But it is not comparable to the more global and colossal goal - the resulting wood. In the Ukrainian language there is a proverb with a similar meaning. It sounds like this: “Where there is flour, there is also dust,” which can be translated as “where there is flour, there is always dust.”

Another meaning of this proverb, more economic, is that flying chips are small but obligatory production costs.

There would be no happiness, but misfortune would help

The meaning of the proverbs “they cut down the forest - the chips fly” and “if there was no happiness, but misfortune helped” are opposite in meaning, although they are often confused. So, in the first case, it means that on the way to achieving a good, and most importantly, desired result, you may have to endure Negative consequences. In the second case, it means that sometimes trouble can lead to good, unpredictable and unexpected consequences. Sometimes people get confused about the meaning of these two sayings and use them incorrectly.

Another meaning of the proverb “when the forest is cut down, the chips fly”

There is an interesting suggestion that this proverb refers to larger concepts, such as entire nations. How to understand “the forest is cut down and the chips fly” in this case? Thus, a forest can be associated with a people or nation in the process of change (felling a forest). Sometimes these changes are quite positive and bring something good, but any changes will cause innocent victims. In this case, chips are understood as human broken destinies.

Synonymous saying about causation

The meaning of the proverbs “if they cut down a forest, the chips fly” and “if you don’t break eggs, you can’t fry eggs” are close in meaning. In both cases, it is implied that on the path to a big and good goal one cannot do without concessions and possible inconveniences. But if in a conversation about cutting down a forest, wood chips are an optional and not very significant factor, then in the case of scrambled eggs it is meant that sacrifices for the good (broken eggs) cannot be avoided.

Many people mistakenly consider the meaning of the proverbs “they cut down the forest - the chips fly” and “the further into the forest - the more firewood” is the same, because in both the first and second cases we are talking about the forest and trees. But it is not so. The second proverb implies that any business in the process of execution can bring more and more surprises, and the further it goes, the more troubles you can encounter.

To summarize

The Russian language is rich not only in words, but also in phraseological units, catchphrases, sayings and proverbs. Using them, you enrich your speech, make it even more colorful and rich, and also show your intellectual level with dignity. At the same time, it is important to use the right phrases to the point, otherwise you will goof off instead of showing off your intelligence. Now knowing correct value proverbs: “If you cut down a forest, the chips fly,” “If you don’t break eggs, you can’t fry an egg,” “the further into the forest, the more firewood,” you can use them appropriately.

The figurative meaning of the proverb further into the forest - more firewood

Andrey Martin

The figurative meaning has nothing to do with the FOREST... You can give a synonymous chain FOREST - WILD - PROBLEMS (OBJECTIVES). FIREWOOD - SOLVING A PROBLEM That is, the meaning becomes this: the more you solve problems, study any issue, the more new problems appear that require new solutions... I like Murphy’s Law on this topic “Solving one task (problem) entails the emergence of many other unsolved problems (problems)”... I am a programmer, so this law or saying can be applied to me approximately in the sense of “Identifying one error in program entails an increase in the number of undetected errors :-)" this saying can be applied everywhere

What does it mean - the further into the forest, the more firewood?)))

Landscape

The further you get into problems, the larger and larger they become
The further you delve into the situation, the more unexpected moments arise. I reason based on the fact that there is an expression “to make a mess”, which is probably older than this saying.

Sergey Kropachev

and as the saying goes, when you enter the forest, it’s not difficult to walk, but the further you go, the more difficult it is, the thickets. But in life, when you stir up some kind of business, at first it seems like nothing, but then it turns out that there are a lot of problems, and the further you go, the more.

Natalia Kondratskaya

It’s about the same as “if you don’t know the ford, don’t get into the water” or “the less you know, you’ll sleep better and live longer.” This is when you take on something, and then you regret that you took it on, because you didn’t calculate the strengths and pitfalls (especially if tried to help someone and failed, but caused harm).

Where does the proverb come from - the further into the forest the more firewood there is?

⊰ ðEȴmƴ ⊱

The further into the forest, the more firewood.
THE FURTHER INTO THE FOREST, THE BIGGER THE DROVES. The more you delve into some... business, you delve into problems, the more surprises or difficulties arise that are not easy to overcome. The proverb is actually Russian, recorded from the 17th-18th centuries. : Farther into the forest, more firewood; The further into the forest there is more firewood. IN Polish language, apparently, Russianism: Im dale/ wlas, tym wiecejdrzew. ffl My wife and I are hysterical. The daughter declares that she is unable to live with such violent parents and gets dressed to leave home. The further into the forest, the more firewood. It ends with the important guest finding a doctor on stage applying lead lotions to her husband’s head. (A. Chekhov. Vaudeville). Will there be an end, will the time come when with a light heart you can say to yourself that you have done everything you wanted, achieved what you wanted? Hardly. The further into the forest, the more firewood. (V. Tendryakov. Behind the running day). * The apotheosis of this “process” was the withdrawal from the general Union of Writers of Bondarev’s SP of the RSFSR; then followed the convening of an emergency congress of the same Bondarev wing of the RSFSR SP. His opponents, their meetings and plenums Vl. Gusev dubbed it the “Parade of Informers.” Ee-zh! If your shoulder gets itchy, swing your arm... Further into the forest there is more firewood: Bondarev’s secretariat is decisively closing the Union of Writers of the USSR, since it “ceased to exist.”, . Simple and clear. (B. Mozhaev. Passion-faces. Literary newspaper. 09.25.91). After this [accrual], the salary leaves the region and goes to yours. hometown. The further into the forest, the slower the money “makes its way”. (Arguments and Facts, No. 45. 1996). Wed. : Further into the sea - more grief; Further into the argument - more words.

How to write a fairy tale based on the proverb “The further into the forest, the more firewood”?

How to write a fairy tale based on the proverb “The further into the forest, the more firewood” for 2nd grade?

Galina Vasilna

There lived in the same village a woman and her two sons. The children were not big, but they could already help at home. One day my mother left for work, and before leaving she asked her sons to go to the forest and bring brushwood:

My dear sons, don’t go too far into the forest, don’t take too much brushwood. So that you yourself don’t get too tired and don’t strain your arms.

Mom left, and the sons dressed warmly, took a sled and rope and went into the forest. They came in from the edge, looked around, and it seemed to them that there wasn’t enough brushwood here. Let's go further into the forest. It’s true, the further into the forest they went, the more firewood they found. Apparently others cut down from the edge, but not everyone went into the thicket. The guys chopped wood and loaded it onto the sled. We tried, we wanted to please my mother and prepare more firewood. Only when we set off on the return journey did the heavily loaded sleigh either fall into the snow, then cling to the bushes, or fall on its side.

It’s hard to drag, the guys are tired, and it’s still very far from home. After all, they went to the forest light, and back with a loaded sled.

The guys see that it’s already getting dark, but they can’t get out of the forest. Then they removed half the wood from the sled, tied it up again and hurried home. They walk along the road and think: after all, mother told them not to go too far. After all, even along the edge of the forest it was possible to collect the firewood that would fit on their sleds. You don't always have to go far for something you can't carry.

Russian proverb meaning: The deeper you dive into a problem, matter, etc., the more subtleties and features that were previously hidden, you discover.

Examples

(1860 - 1904)

“Vaudeville” (1884): “The wife is hysterical. The daughter declares that she is not able to live with such violent parents, and gets dressed to leave the house. . It ends with an important guest finding a doctor on stage applying the husband's head has lead lotions, and a private bailiff drawing up a protocol for violating public peace and quiet."

"Sakhalin island"- “The cattle, such as we have, are borrowed from the treasury and fed at the state expense. The further into the forest, the more firewood: all Arkov residents owe, their debt grows with each new crop, with each extra head of livestock, and for some it already extends to an unpaid figure - two or even three hundred rubles per capita."

(1809 - 1852)

(1831-1832), I - about Ivan Fedorovich Shponka:

“He was already nearly fifteen years old when he moved to the second grade, where, instead of the abbreviated catechism and the four rules of arithmetic, he began to study the long one, a book about the positions of man and fractions. But, seeing that the further into the forest, the more firewood, and having received the news that the father ordered him to live long, he stayed for another two years and, with the consent of his mother, then joined the P*** infantry regiment."

Proverbs of the Russian people. - M.: Fiction.

V. I. Dal.

1989.

See what "The further into the forest, the more firewood." in other dictionaries: Wed. Their only business was lying... but... the further into the forest, the more firewood. Every day the talent for lying became in them... in undoubtedly greater proportions. Ch. Uspensky. New times. Three letters. 2. Wed. Shouldn't we leave here for the goodness of our minds? it is seen …

The further into the forest, the more firewood (the further into the argument, the more words). Wed. Their only business was lying... but... the further into the forest, the more firewood. Every day the talent for lying became in them... undoubtedly more... ...

Michelson's Large Explanatory and Phraseological Dictionary (original spelling)- (from the last. The further into the forest, the more firewood, the further events develop, the more difficulties arise; getting into the forest sounds like) original meaning ... Live speech. Dictionary of colloquial expressions

The further you go into the forest, the more you are the odd man out- (from the last. The further into the forest, the more firewood, the further events develop, the more difficulties arise; getting into the forest sounds like) original meaning ... Live speech. Dictionary of colloquial expressions

The further into the forest, the more firewood (the further into the argument, the more words) Cf. Their only business was lying... but... the further into the forest, the more firewood. Every day the talent for lying became in them... in undoubtedly greater proportions. Ch. Uspensky. New... ... Michelson's Large Explanatory and Phraseological Dictionary

THE FURTHER // YOU CLEAN, THE MORE INTEREST / INTO THE FOREST, THE MORE PARTISANS- last front: The further into the forest, the more firewood. No matter what the child amuses himself with, as long as he doesn’t poop on the last one. front., Makar.: Whatever the child amuses himself with, as long as he doesn’t cry., English: to fuck make love... Dictionary modern colloquial phraseological units and proverbs

The further you climb, the more interested you become- (from the last. The further into the forest, the more firewood, the further events develop, the more difficulties arise; getting into the forest sounds like) original meaning ... Live speech. Dictionary of colloquial expressions

the further- he got in, the closer he got out... the thicker the partisans joked. a parody of the saying “the further into the forest, the more firewood”... Dictionary of Russian argot

Union. 1. Attaches a revolution or adverb. sentence with the meaning of comparison, comparison of whom, what, etc. with what is said in the main thing. Talk louder than usual. In the south the stars are brighter than in the north. The mountains were higher than anyone expected. 2... encyclopedic Dictionary

Books

• Shadow of Light, Andrey Vasiliev. Studio "MediaKniga" presents the third audiobook in the series "A. Smolin, the Witcher" by the famous Russian writer Andrey Vasiliev - “Shadow of Light”. The book has been read popular artist and actor... audiobook
• Shadow of Light, Andrey Vasiliev. Everybody knows folk proverb, which says that “the further into the forest◦, the more firewood.” This is how it really is. The more aspiring witcher Alexander Smolin learns about exactly how...

Strange headlines have been appearing in Nasha Niva lately.

I can’t believe my eyes!

After all, “Nasha Niva” is not ours for a long time. But to wrap something like this up is mind-boggling!

However, if you take into account who calls the tune and add events to it last months, everything is drawn.

The West has finally changed its tactics. He no longer needed the destroyers of the last Soviet-era outpost. Their mission is over.

Due to the inertia of the working strata of the population, the electoral resource of the new plan, of course, remained the same. These are the intelligentsia, students and high school students.

The opposition has also invented the main culprit for “our troubles and our evils” - Putin’s Russia. Being under sanctions, you can hang all the dogs on her, starting with Ivan the Terrible. Will endure.

Now - at the instigation of Dubovets - they have added to her company, oddly enough, an ardent Russophobe of perestroika and post-Soviet times - Zenon Poznyak.

What is new in the approaches of the West and its henchmen to dismantling peace in our society?

The new task now is to enslave the same intelligentsia and youth on the sly. But without cultivating radical nationalist sentiments, but by creating intellectual platforms where fraternization with Russian liberals would become the norm.

After all, the Ciceros have disappeared from our country, and Navalny and others are visible in Russia.

I think that for this reason the opposition was gradually converted to Russian-speaking.

It is this goal that explains the strange appearance and circulation of quotes from the newly minted literary diva Svetlana Alexievich, who spoke quite definitely:

"To do what I did, on Belarusian language it was impossible."

And finally, period. Finally, the main thing is the emergence of a passionate desire among the puppeteers to create here, on the basis of the portal TUT.by, which has radically changed its rhetoric, an intellectual platform for those who like to scratch their tongues with the involvement of the promoted liberalism of foreign countries (read - Russian renegades).

They are, like no one else, close to us in mentality.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Shenderovich or the taciturn Savik Shuster show up as hosts of these gatherings.

After all, he never said anything unpleasant about Lukashenko. Others spoke, and he, without visible emotions on his face, listened and did not assent.

But let's return to Poznyak.

I will honestly say that I, like many, understand this very bright propagandist, who managed to become the central figure of the Belarusian Popular Front in the late 80s, and then with little effort to saddle the Belarusian parliament and solve the priority tasks of gaining independence for the country.

The main thing: he is an ideological opponent of everything Soviet, but not a traitor. He does not count “Judas’ pieces of silver” in his pocket, but sticks to his line because he believes, because he is convinced that he is right and defends his point of view.

The West did not like Poznyak’s straightforwardness and independence of judgment, and he was pushed to the margins of Russophobic politics.

He is not their man. They don't need people with their own opinions. They need performers.

So what does the revolutionary Sergei Dubovets, widely known in narrow circles, accuse Poznyak of on the pages of “Nasha Niva” and “Svoboda”?

Neither more nor less - in the most important thing: “The history of Muggles would have been different, if the Popular Front of the 90s would have been different.”.

Him, you see, then "nathnyaў pryklad" Popular Front of microscopic and quiet Estonia.

It was there, and not in Lithuania and Latvia with a huge number of Russians living, in his opinion, that the most successful pies were baked.

Maybe it was so, since in Estonia people did not die in clashes with special forces, and there was no particular need to torment the Russians. But Dubovets’ claim that he allegedly took control of the situation at that time post-Soviet space and could determine priorities is highly doubtful.

To Dubovets, who was then in euphoria, “It seemed that Belarus, for most of its history, was stale and as non-Belarusian as the BSSR”.

But in Belarus, at first, she came to the throne "the highest dzyarzhauna asoba"- Shushkevich. In parliament, either Poznyak and his comrades, or Lukashenko were raging.

What line Dubovets followed then is not very clear, because he was not in the public eye and only came out now - with discussions about Poznyak’s mistakes.

Further, he asks why everything didn’t go the way it did in Estonia, why we are not where Estonia is, and not like Estonia with its higher standard of living than in the post-Soviet space.

Let's not argue with Dubovets. He either does not understand, or deliberately does not want to understand, the difference in mentalities, the incomparability of production capacities and the scale of production relationships that characterize the economies of our countries.

He does not think about current information about how many people left for the West from the Baltic republics in comparison with Belarus.

He is not interested in the state of the real sector of the economy and what the prospects are economic development Estonia, etc.

For him, Estonia is paradise, because “Didn’t people hate the good and bad Estonians there? And where did the Popular Front become known to the democrats? And why did they set a course for independence - NATO - Europe?

The question is, was it different for us in the early 90s?

Was our BPF headed by the Partygenosse? Didn’t US President Clinton come to us and give us a bench in Kurapaty?

After all, can a sane politician really believe that the path to "independence" lies through NATO membership?

In his rantings, Dubovets, of course, could not ignore "Mounaga torture."

80 percent of communists, Soviet generals, even Yankovsky from the Russian Theater voted for his language, but it was his fault that not everyone spoke on it "theatricalized radicalism" - “He is an intellect who developed that tiny hellishness of Belarus, which was taken away during the war. The parallel with Estonia was wrong.”

It’s hard to even call it stupidity. After all, the impulse of Belarusians for change at that time was not due to an insatiable thirst to use the Belarusian language, but to the distrust of the authorities sown among the people, Chernobyl fears and the infantilism of those who stood at the helm of the young republic.

Further, Dubovets claims that the split into the svyadomy and the unsvyadomy did not happen immediately after the formation of the Belarusian Popular Front, but after the election Supreme Council XII convocation. And the reason for this is Poznyak.

He's writing: “At the same time, the “elite” disappeared - the menavita pavodle gatay prikmety - svyadomyh, gata zanyts, molded for others, maceros, lich that “Estonians”, who rose above the old Belarusians.”

We've arrived.

After all, everyone remembers that this so-called “elite” began to emerge when it ran from one room to another under the name "Talaka."

She, the “elite,” gained breath when the sons of party workers realized that in the changed conditions the chance to rise to the level of power of their fathers presented itself only on the wave of national radicalism, and not obedience.

After all, even then life posed the question bluntly: either - or. Maneuvering was not welcomed, since everyone was tired of it during perestroika times.

Further, Dubovets confirms the inertia of his own thinking:

“I saved 25 years, and maybe even more, as long as we know that Belarusians are different, because all the trees and oak trees are different.”

It turns out that the situation now is not the same as before. There was a click: harmony reigned in society and "pamyarkoўnasts". (“Facebook” doesn’t count).

But this appearance of reconciliation is not without reason. This is a run-up to kick Poznyak and his entourage again:

“And what do you say - how are the people pagodzitsa na getki padzel, that we are Belarusians, but are there more Belarusian Belarusians? It is clear that “great Belarusians” will have abstract meetings on their side.”

Lukashenko is left too. It turns out he “I took the language out of the city” because she “became an admonisher for my family”, and Belarusians are suckers “I felt satisfied with the hell of it, to show the “big Belarusians” Kuzkin’s mother.

The schools themselves are rightly de-Belarusized.”

Well, just like Emelyushka: “The sleigh rides, it rides on its own, it rides on its own without a horse.”

And this nationwide revolt, born of the radicalization of the Svyadomy, led to the fall of the Belarusian Popular Front as a powerful mass movement and contributed to “We are installing an authoritative madele of ўlady, because the “unstable” people are autamatychna subjects of the palace, and the “elite” is a stratsila subject, closed on itself.”

Dubovets never clarified what the subjectivity of the people in politics means and who prevented the “elite” from losing it, each time remembering his beloved Estonia.

In rare moments of enlightenment, he speaks the absolute truth:

“...every Estonian will tell you who Lukashenka is, but only the hellish people of Belarus can guess who the President of Estonia is.”

And then he gets nostalgic:

“... some people think so myself - all of us, at the heart of all Belarusians, are hidden from all Belarusians, we cry out to them and to ourselves, to the whole people.”

Let us take a moment and imagine what the result would have been if Lenin and his entourage had "maryli" or “clicked to yourself” in 1917?

The Bolsheviks were not infantile intellectuals. They were armed modern theory, strategy and tactics of thoughtful actions. They persistently, competently and purposefully carried out daily work among workers and soldiers and were successful.

Revolutions in the minds of people are not made through incantations and humiliation of the current government alone. And the aggravation of national issues in multinational republics is always fraught with carnage. You don't have to look far for examples.

Thank God, Zenon Poznyak and the revolutionaries of the first wave, willy-nilly, were brought up in a decent society. At that time they were not itching to unleash fratricidal conflicts on very unstable national and linguistic grounds.

There was controversy, ballpoint pens were broken, but not spears.

And here Dubovets is openly disingenuous, declaring that “atrad musіў bazavazza na demakratychnyh padstav. Not at all on the canned and radical ones, which instead of the agricultural sector were used, on the contrary, by the loud elite and the desperate cleanliness. What's wrong and you're sick."

After all, we remember very well: the entire opposition was not at all engaged in a detailed elaboration of the strategy for returning the country’s economy to a stable position, but instead struck in search of the future in the past on the basis of nationalist sentiments alien to people.

Surely the same Dubovets tore his shirt by “The language and the weakened hell of Balshevism” instead of agitation for national consensus and the translation of public debate into the mainstream of economic problems and ways to solve them.

It served as an excuse for our national humanitarians, who knew nothing about economics. “Road to Europe.” It was as if they were impatiently waiting for us there and there was no life for them without us.

At the end of his story, Dubovets sincerely admits his thoughtlessness:

“In this case, if we understand this, the scale of the bastards and the herds of the “families of Belarus” have been eliminated - other countries have different countries, different languages.”

However, even today his reasoning has not received at least any replenishment with new ideas and does not go beyond “mounaga torture.”

He states that "znіkla self-proclaimed“elite of the majority of Belarusians in Belarus”, svyadomyh,” but, like a woodpecker, he remains faithful to the previous standard, with which he pins timid hopes: “...how can we understand ourselves with the Estonians, and why is this magical misery irrevocable?”

And Dubovets’s confession without admitting his own mistakes naturally caused a resonance in the opposition community.

It should be noted that many of the arguments of the discussion participants seem quite reasonable.

For example, someone under the nickname “Sviadomy”, talking about Poznyak, states:

“Nya could in 1994 Metsko Yong Yong Padtrymyku at gramadism ... I would have a bang Gamsakhurdya from Gruziy ... Khatsya, he would be healthy, Sfafarmavatz udolnaya Vertykal I Garyzantal, in Adroznnin, Hell Shushkevich.”

“...the size of the active Ruhaitsa has grown “everything, on the right is broken, the pallet system has been published - it is necessary to think about it”, the green business has abandoned, the family members are right from the broad faction parliamentarians' pockets (there were only members of the BPF) , they began to explore their own interests: who is the keeper, who is the landowner in the adpachynku zone, who gave their creations away for the Dzyarzhainy Kosht, who is in Lithuania, who lives in the old Belarus "Kay steel."

“Mae Ratsyu” and someone “Benedzikt”:

“Suchu for obmerkavannem and vyshavany zauzhazhyts - not abmyarkovaetstsa extremely important problem (it seems that menavіta yana “motivated” Dubaevts (and not only Iago) on the written word of the article).

Prychyna ў offensive - agulavlyadom that the scandal with the adventure - the facts of the uncollected, falsified signatures of "Govpravda" and how other "lidars" plow all these dzeyachov in your mind grooves.

It is true that Z. Paznyak ab dzeynastsi pseudapazitsynykh struktury".

What can I say? Everything is correct. The way it is.

We must pay tribute to Poznyak. Despite all his recent miscalculations, he is the only significant figure who does not compromise on principles and does not wag his tail in front of those who call the tune.

If his nervous system had not resonated with the Ukrainian events, which in no way correspond to his own ideas about good and evil, he could have become not a foreign leader of alternative thinking, but a real Belarusian politician who has no need to fight with windmills communism - they are already in the past.

In conclusion, I wanted to write something smart, but one expression from Dubovets brought a smile and put me off the desire to pound water in a mortar:

“...all the trees in the oak tree are rosy, only the pine needles are hellishly timid. And the very sign is like this - an oak, oaks for other oaks - not the same as in nature.”

It seems that Dubovets told the truth. But, as you know, in every process there are exceptions.

Today “Oakest for other oaks” still there.

The traditional role of the family of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), small RNA molecules that do not code for proteins, is considered to be the repression of gene activity and, in particular, protein synthesis. However, a new study has shown (for the umpteenth time!) that the functions of one of the groups of these molecules - microRNAs - are much broader: in certain cases they can stimulate translation rather than block it.

In the last ten to fifteen years, the basic dogma of molecular biology (“DNA → RNA → protein”) has been significantly weakened and expanded due to the fact that a great many molecular mechanisms have been discovered that stand out from this harmonious concept. The discoveries associated with short, non-protein-coding RNA molecules were revolutionary: this included the famous phenomenon of RNA interference (noted by the Nobel Prize shortly after its discovery) and other mechanisms of RNA-dependent gene repression. One of the types of short RNAs - micro-RNAs (miRNAs; miRNA) is actively involved in the processes individual development organism, including temporal control, death, cell proliferation and differentiation, embryonic organ formation. They carry out fine tuning» gene expression at the post-transcriptional level, thereby adding another layer of complexity to the sophisticated mechanism of intracellular regulation. Originally discovered in a "laboratory" nematode C. elegans, miRNAs were then discovered in many plants and animals, and more recently in single-celled organisms.

Previously, it was believed that short RNAs are used by cells in the process of RNA interference for the specific degradation of unnecessary or harmful RNAs - in particular, this is how a cell can destroy foreign genetic material of viruses, related retrotransposons and other mobile elements, as well as RNA formed as a result of transcription genomic repeat sequences. Therefore, it was logical to assume that short RNAs serve as a kind of prototype “ immune system"inside the cell. As our understanding of the participants and mechanisms of RNA-dependent gene repression developed, more and more new interesting features, the rich variety of ways of implementing this repression existing in nature was revealed.

The mechanism of action of most miRNAs is in many ways similar to RNA interference - a short (21–25 bases) single-stranded RNA as part of a protein complex (the key component of which is a protein of the Argonaute) bind with high specificity to the complementary region in the 3′-untranslated region (3′-UTR) of the target mRNA. In plants, the miRNAs of which are completely complementary to a segment of the target mRNA, binding leads to cleavage of the mRNA by the protein Argonaute right in the middle of the miRNA–mRNA duplex - a situation closest to “classical” RNA interference. In animals, miRNAs are not completely complementary to their target, and the result of binding is different. For a long time it was believed that binding leads to translational suppression (the mechanism of which still remains a mystery) and does not cause any noticeable degradation of the target mRNA. However, it was later convincingly demonstrated that for most miRNAs this is not the case - proteins forming a complex with miRNAs stimulate the degradation of target mRNA, attracting enzymes that remove the cap at the 5′ end and shorten the poly(A) tail at the 3′ end. end of the mRNA. (This is where the degradation of mRNAs that have served their purpose usually begins.) Surprisingly, it is still not entirely clear whether the suppression of translation is a cause or a consequence of the onset of mRNA degradation.

Meanwhile, life once again demonstrates its reluctance to fit into any clear-cut schemes: in the laboratory of Joan Steitz ( Joan Steitz) it was found that siRNAs can effectively suppress translation by binding not only to the 3′ untranslated region of mRNA, but also to the 5′ UTR. And recently in the magazine Science another article from this successful laboratory appeared. It says that under certain conditions (reminiscent of cells falling into “ hibernation", when cultivated in the absence of serum in a nutrient medium), the interaction of miRNA and target mRNA leads to a strictly opposite effect - strengthening synthesis target protein. This was shown for the mRNA of one of the cytokines, tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), and the miRNA miR369-3, and then confirmed for the let7-a and miRcxcr4 miRNAs paired with artificially constructed mRNA targets.

Figure 1. In an actively dividing cell, miRNA binds to a complementary sequence in the 3′ untranslated region of mRNA and inhibits protein synthesis (translation).

However, in a resting cell, the same event leads to exactly the opposite effect. Interestingly, the effect of the same miRNA depended on the state of the cells: in dividing cells, miRNA suppressed mRNA translation, and in quiescent cells (temporarily left the cell cycle), on the contrary, it stimulated (Fig. 1). It is also interesting that miRNAs acted as part of a complex containing proteins Argonaute 2 And FXR1 Argonaute(although the human genome encodes 4 related proteins of the family , and all of them deal with miRNA to one degree or another). It is these proteins that belong the main role

in the mechanism of the observed phenomenon, while miRNAs perform the function of a “replaceable adapter” through which proteins interact with various mRNA targets.

The question of the mechanism of action, as well as the avalanche of other, more specific questions raised by this publication, remain unanswered. But I remember the time when the phenomenon of RNA interference was just discovered - how clear everything was to us then and how logical it seemed!.. But now we can only shrug our shoulders - the further into the forest, the more firewood.

1. Literature
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3. scientific.ru J. R. Lytle, T. A. Yario, J. A. Steitz. (2007). Target mRNAs are repressed as efficiently by microRNA-binding sites in the 5" UTR as in the 3" UTR.. 104 , 9667-9672;
4. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Science. 318 , 1931-1934;
5. S. Vasudevan, Y. Tong, J. A. Steitz. (2007). Switching from Repression to Activation: MicroRNAs Can Up-Regulate Translation. Nicole Rusk. (2008). When microRNAs activate translation.. 5 , 122-123.