Next, we employed luciferase assay to examine whether miR-20a directly regulates target genes expression. We cloned the wild-type (WT) 3′-UTRs of BECN1, ATG16L1 or SQSTM1 gene to a luciferase reporter. In the presence of miR-20a, the relative luciferase activities for BECN1, SQSTM1 or ATG16L1 wild-type constructs were reduced by 47%, 28% and 39%, respectively. We also disrupted the putative miR-20a paring sites in the 3′-UTRs by site-directed mutagenesis, the mutated reporters (Mut) restored miR-20a-induced inhibition of luciferase activity (Figure 2e). Because BECN1, ATG16L1 and SQSTM1 are key autophagy regulators, we propose that miR-20a may negatively regulate the autophagy/lysosome pathway.