Comparative genomic analysis of upstream miRNA regulatory motifs in Caenorhabditis.

ABSTRACT: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) comprise a class of short noncoding RNA molecules that play diverse developmental and physiological roles by controlling mRNA abundance and protein output of the vast majority of transcripts. Despite the importance of miRNAs in regulating gene function, we still lack a complete understanding of how miRNAs themselves are transcriptionally regulated. To fill this gap, we predicted regulatory sequences by searching for abundant short motifs located upstream of miRNAs in eight species of Caenorhabditis nematodes. We identified three conserved motifs across the Caenorhabditis phylogeny that show clear signatures of purifying selection from comparative genomics, patterns of nucleotide changes in motifs of orthologous miRNAs, and correlation between motif incidence and miRNA ex

SUBMITTER: Jovelin R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4911920 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature