Identification of novel Drosophila melanogaster microRNAs.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs with important regulatory roles in post-transcriptional regulation of metazoan development, homeostasis and disease. The full set of miRNAs is not known for any species and it is believed that many await discovery. The recent assembly of 15 insect genomes...

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Main Authors: Thomas Sandmann, Stephen M Cohen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2007-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2082411?pdf=render
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author Thomas Sandmann
Stephen M Cohen
author_facet Thomas Sandmann
Stephen M Cohen
author_sort Thomas Sandmann
collection DOAJ
description MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs with important regulatory roles in post-transcriptional regulation of metazoan development, homeostasis and disease. The full set of miRNAs is not known for any species and it is believed that many await discovery. The recent assembly of 15 insect genomes has provided the opportunity to identify novel miRNAs in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. We have performed a computational screen for novel microRNAs in Drosophila melanogaster by searching for phylogenetically conserved putative pre-miRNA structures. The ability of predicted novel miRNA precursors to be processed to produce miRNAs was experimentally verified in S2 cells and in several cases their endogenous expression at was validated by Northern blots. After experimental validation, the predictions were cross-checked with reference to a newly released set of small RNA sequences. Combining both datasets allowed us to identify 53 novel miRNA loci in the fruit fly genome 22 of which we had predicted computationally. This significantly expands the set of known miRNAs in Drosophila melanogaster. Most novel miRNAs contain unique seed sequences not found in other Drosophila miRNAs and are therefore expected to regulate novel sets of target genes. This data provides the basis for future genetic analysis of miRNA function and will aid the discovery of orthologous sequences in other species.
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spelling doaj.art-7d70b469f4b6429d831835462e87f2ca2022-12-21T18:46:07ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032007-01-01211e126510.1371/journal.pone.0001265Identification of novel Drosophila melanogaster microRNAs.Thomas SandmannStephen M CohenMicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs with important regulatory roles in post-transcriptional regulation of metazoan development, homeostasis and disease. The full set of miRNAs is not known for any species and it is believed that many await discovery. The recent assembly of 15 insect genomes has provided the opportunity to identify novel miRNAs in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. We have performed a computational screen for novel microRNAs in Drosophila melanogaster by searching for phylogenetically conserved putative pre-miRNA structures. The ability of predicted novel miRNA precursors to be processed to produce miRNAs was experimentally verified in S2 cells and in several cases their endogenous expression at was validated by Northern blots. After experimental validation, the predictions were cross-checked with reference to a newly released set of small RNA sequences. Combining both datasets allowed us to identify 53 novel miRNA loci in the fruit fly genome 22 of which we had predicted computationally. This significantly expands the set of known miRNAs in Drosophila melanogaster. Most novel miRNAs contain unique seed sequences not found in other Drosophila miRNAs and are therefore expected to regulate novel sets of target genes. This data provides the basis for future genetic analysis of miRNA function and will aid the discovery of orthologous sequences in other species.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2082411?pdf=render
spellingShingle Thomas Sandmann
Stephen M Cohen
Identification of novel Drosophila melanogaster microRNAs.
PLoS ONE
title Identification of novel Drosophila melanogaster microRNAs.
title_full Identification of novel Drosophila melanogaster microRNAs.
title_fullStr Identification of novel Drosophila melanogaster microRNAs.
title_full_unstemmed Identification of novel Drosophila melanogaster microRNAs.
title_short Identification of novel Drosophila melanogaster microRNAs.
title_sort identification of novel drosophila melanogaster micrornas
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC2082411?pdf=render
work_keys_str_mv AT thomassandmann identificationofnoveldrosophilamelanogastermicrornas
AT stephenmcohen identificationofnoveldrosophilamelanogastermicrornas