Diurnal small RNA expression and post-transcriptional regulation in young and old Drosophila melanogaster heads

Background: MicroRNAs are a class of small (~22nt) endogenous RNAs that regulate target transcript expression post-transcriptionally. Previous studies characterized age-related changes in diurnal but it is not understood how these regulated, and whether they may be attributed part to microRNA or activity with age. Diurnal RNA age were previously studied. Methods: To interrogate age, we collected young (5 day) old (55 Drosophila melanogaster around-the-clock performed deep sequencing on size-selected from whole heads. Results: We found several microRNAs rhythmicity after aging, investigated which differentially expressed predicted targets have RNA-binding transcription factor activity. used published method identify mRNA transcripts show evidence targeting altered involved muscle development maintenance. Finally, identified novel using the random-forest-based miRWoods, surprisingly also discovered transfer RNA-derived fragments. Conclusions: We showed decrease global corresponding increase piRNA during aging. an Drosophila including microRNAs, clusters, fragments. our knowledge this first study examining around clock Drosophila, as such paves way for future research regulatory molecules context aging.