downs syndrome (ds), or trisomy 21, is the most common genetic cause of cognitive impairment and congenital heart defects in the human population. to date, the contribution of micrornas (mirnas) in ds has not been investigated. bioinformatic analyses demonstrate that human chromosome 21 (hsa21) harbors five mirna genes mir-99a, let-7c, mir-125b-2, mir-155 and mir-802. mirna expression profiling...

Micro-RNA (miRNA or miR) regulates at least 60% of the genes in the human genome through their target sites at mRNA 3'-untranslated regions (UTR), and defects in miRNA expression regulation and target sites are frequently observed in cancers. We report here a systematic analysis of the distribution of miRNA target sites. Using the evolutionarily conserved miRNA binding sites in the TargetScan d...

Background: Micro RNAs (miRNAs) are a pivotal part of non-protein-coding endogenous small RNA molecules that regulate the genes involved in plant growth and development, and respond to biotic and abiotic environmental stresses posttranscriptionally.Objective: In the present study, we report the results of a systemic search for identifi cation of new miRNAs in B. rapa using homology-based ...

Psoriasis is an immune-mediated skin disease driven by the interplay between genetic predisposition and environmental factors. Epigenetic modifications have been reported in psoriasis, but methylation of miRNA-encoding genes (MIRs) has not previously explored. Using reduced representation bisulfite sequencing, we performed exhaustive genome-wide profiling MIR lesional, non-lesional healthy epid...

OBJECTIVE Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal diseases, and the pathogenesis remains largely unknown. To this end, we performed an integrated analysis of miRNA and mRNA expression data to explore the deregulation of miRNA and mRNA and regulatory processes underlying pancreatic cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS We combined mRNA and miRNA expression data with miRNA target predictions to inf...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important regulatory roles by targeting mRNAs for cleavage or translational repression. Identification of miRNA targets is essential to better understanding the roles of miRNAs. miRNA targets have not been well characterized in mulberry (Morus alba). To anatomize miRNA guided gene regulation under drought stress, transcriptome-wide high throughput degradome sequencing wa...

How newly generated microRNA (miRNA) genes are integrated into gene regulatory networks during evolution is fundamental in understanding the molecular and evolutionary bases of robustness and plasticity in gene regulation. A recent model proposed that after the birth of a miRNA, the miRNA is generally integrated into the network by decreasing the number of target genes during evolution. However...

BACKGROUND miRNAs are an abundant class of small, endogenous regulatory RNAs. Although it is now appreciated that miRNAs are involved in a broad range of biological processes, relatively little is known about the actual mechanism by which miRNAs downregulate target gene expression. An exploration of which protein cofactors are necessary for a miRNA to downregulate a target gene should reveal mo...