The 3′-UTR often contains microRNA response elements (MREs), which are sequences to which miRNAs bind. miRNAs are short, non-coding RNA molecules capable of binding to mRNA transcripts and regulating their expression. One miRNA mechanism involves partial base pairing of the 5' seed sequence of an miRNA to an MRE within the 3′-UTR of an mRNA; this binding then causes translational repression.