Identifying the target mRNAs of microRNAs in colorectal cancer

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in gene regulatory networks by inhibiting the expression of target mRNAs. There is a growing interest in identifying the relationship between miRNAs and their target mRNAs. Various experimental studies have been carried out to discover miRNAs involved in cancer and to identify their target genes. At the same time, a large volume of miRNA and mRNA expression profiles have become available owing to the development of high-throughput measurement technologies. So, there is now a pressing need to develop a computational method by which we can identify the target mRNAs of given miRNAs from such massive expression data sets. In this respect, we propose an effective linear model based identification method to unravel the relationship between miRNAs and their target mRNAs in colorectal cancer by using microarray expression profiles and sequence data.     

Identification of evolutionarily conserved Momordica charantia microRNAs using computational approach and its utility in phylogeny analysis

Momordica charantia (bitter gourd, bitter melon) is a monoecious Cucurbitaceae with anti-oxidant, anti-microbial, anti-viral and anti-diabetic potential. Molecular studies on this economically valuable plant are very essential to understand its phylogeny and evolution. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are conserved, small, non-coding RNA with ability to regulate gene expression by bind the 3′ UTR region of target mRNA and are evolved at different rates in different plant species. In this study we have utilized homology based computational approach and identified 27 mature miRNAs for the first time from this bio-medically important plant. The phylogenetic tree developed from binary data derived from the data on presence/absence of the identified miRNAs were noticed to be uncertain and biased. Most of the identified miRNAs were highly conserved among the plant species and sequence based phylogeny analysis of miRNAs resolved the above difficulties in phylogeny approach using miRNA. Predicted gene targets of the identified miRNAs revealed their importance in regulation of plant developmental process. Reported miRNAs held sequence conservation in mature miRNAs and the detailed phylogeny analysis of pre-miRNA sequences revealed genus specific segregation of clusters.     

Computational Identification of MicroRNAs and Their Targets in Perennial Ryegrass (Lolium perenne)

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules of 22 nucleotides in length that have been characterized as regulators of messenger RNA (mRNA) regulating a number of developmental processes in plants and animals by silencing genes using multiple mechanisms. miRNAs have been extensively studied in various plant species; however, few information are available about miRNAs in perennial ryegrass, animal feed, and industrial raw materials. In this study, the 12 potential perennial ryegrass miRNAs were identified for the first time by computational approach. Using the newly identified miRNA sequences, the perennial ryegrass mRNA database was further used for BLAST search and detected 33 potential targets of miRNAs. Prediction of potential miRNA target genes revealed their functions involved in various important plant biological processes. Our result should be useful for further investigation into the biological functions of miRNAs in perennial ryegrass. The selected miRNAs representing four families were verified by RT-PCR experiment, indicating that the prediction method that we used to identify the miRNAs was effective.     

Genome-wide computational identification of microRNAs and their targets in the deep-branching eukaryote Giardia lamblia

Using a combined computational program, we identified 50 potential microRNAs (miRNAs) in Giardia lamblia, one of the most primitive unicellular eukaryotes. These miRNAs are unique to G. lamblia and no homologues have been found in other organisms; miRNAs, currently known in other species, were not found in G. lamblia. This suggests that miRNA biogenesis and miRNA-mediated gene regulation pathway may evolve independently, especially in evolutionarily distant lineages. A majority (43) of the predicted miRNAs are located at one single locus; however, some miRNAs have two or more copies in the genome. Among the 58 miRNA genes, 28 are located in the intergenic regions whereas 30 are present in the anti-sense strands of the protein-coding sequences. Five predicted miRNAs are expressed in G. lamblia trophozoite cells evidenced by expressed sequence tags or RT-PCR. Thirty-seven identified miRNAs may target 50 protein-coding genes, including seven variant-specific surface proteins (VSPs). Our findings provide a clue that miRNA-mediated gene regulation may exist in the early stage of eukaryotic evolution, suggesting that it is an important regulation system ubiquitous in eukaryotes.     

Computational identification of novel microRNA homologs in the chimpanzee genome

MicroRNAs are important negative regulators of gene expression in higher eukaryotes. The miRNA repertoire of the closest human animal relative, the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), is largely unknown. In this study, we focused on computational search of novel miRNA homologs in chimpanzee. We have searched and analyzed the chimp homologs of the human pre-miRNA and mature miRNA sequences. Based on a homology search of the chimpanzee genome with human miRNA precursor sequences as queries, we identified 639 chimp miRNA genes, including 529 novel chimp miRNAs. 91.8% of chimp mature miRNAs and 60.3% of precursors are 100% identical to their human orthologs. The pre-miRNA secondary structures, miRNA families, and clusters are also highly conserved. We also found certain sequence differences in pre-miRNAs and even mature miRNAs that occurred after the divergence of the two species. Some of these differences (especially in mature miRNAs) could have caused species-specific changes in the expression levels of their target genes which in turn could have resulted in phenotypic variation between human and chimp.