MicroRNAs in the Same Clusters Evolve to Coordinately Regulate Functionally Related Genes.

ABSTRACT: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenously expressed small noncoding RNAs. The genomic locations of animal miRNAs are significantly clustered in discrete loci. We found duplication and de novo formation were important mechanisms to create miRNA clusters and the clustered miRNAs tend to be evolutionarily conserved. We proposed a "functional co-adaptation" model to explain how clustering helps newly emerged miRNAs survive and develop functions. We presented evidence that abundance of miRNAs in the same clusters were highly correlated and those miRNAs exerted cooperative repressive effects on target genes in human tissues. By transfecting miRNAs into human and fly cells and extensively profiling the transcriptome alteration with deep-sequencing, we further demonstrated the functional co-adaptation b

SUBMITTER: Wang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4989102 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature