玉米microRNAs及其靶基因的生物信息学预测

microRNAs (miRNAs) 是一类非编码的小分子RNA, 通过碱基互补调控靶基因的表达。鉴定和发现新的miRNAs及其靶基因, 对揭示miRNAs在基因表达调控中的作用至关重要。玉米全基因组测序工作开展较晚, 已经鉴定登记的miRNAs很少, 对靶基因的调控作用尚待解明。文章根据miRNA进化上的保守性, 以已知的植物miRNAs为探针, 与相关数据库中玉米表达序列标签(EST)和基因组序列(GSS)中的非编码序列比对, 共发现11个新的miRNA前体。虽然在序列长度和二级结构方面各有变化, 但这11个前体均可折叠形成miRNA家族的标准二级结构。通过靶基因预测, 找到其中7条miRNAs的26个靶基因, 分别编码与新陈代谢、信号转导、转录调节、跨膜运输、生物和非生物胁迫及叶绿体组装等相关的蛋白。这些miRNAs及其靶基因的鉴定, 补充了miRNA数据库的不足。     

miRNA cassettes in viral vectors: problems and solutions

The discovery of RNA interference (RNAi), an evolutionary conserved gene silencing mechanism that is triggered by double stranded RNA, has led to tremendous efforts to use this technology for basic research and new RNA therapeutics. RNAi can be induced via transfection of synthetic small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), which results in a transient knockdown of the targeted mRNA. For stable gene silencing, short hairpin RNA (shRNA) or microRNA (miRNA) constructs have been developed. In mammals and humans, the natural RNAi pathway is triggered via endogenously expressed miRNAs. The use of modified miRNA expression cassettes to elucidate fundamental biological questions or to develop therapeutic strategies has received much attention. Viral vectors are particularly useful for the delivery of miRNA genes to specific target cells. To date, many viral vectors have been developed, each with distinct characteristics that make one vector more suitable for a certain purpose than others. This review covers the recent progress in miRNA-based gene-silencing approaches that use viral vectors, with a focus on their unique properties, respective limitations and possible solutions. Furthermore, we discuss a related topic that involves the insertion of miRNA-target sequences in viral vector systems to restrict their cellular range of gene expression. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: MicroRNAs in viral gene regulation.     

Adenovirus and miRNAs

Adenovirus infection has a tremendous impact on the cellular silencing machinery. Adenoviruses express high amounts of non-coding virus associated (VA) RNAs able to saturate key factors of the RNA interference (RNAi) processing pathway, such as Exportin 5 and Dicer. Furthermore, a proportion of VA RNAs is cleaved by Dicer into viral microRNAs (mivaRNAs) that can saturate Argonaute, an essential protein for miRNA function. Thus, processing and function of cellular miRNAs is blocked in adenoviral-infected cells. However, viral miRNAs actively target the expression of cellular genes involved in relevant functions such as cell proliferation, DNA repair or RNA regulation. Interestingly, the cellular silencing machinery is active at early times post-infection and can be used to control the adenovirus cell cycle. This is relevant for therapeutic purposes against adenoviral infections or when recombinant adenoviruses are used as vectors for gene therapy. Manipulation of the viral genome allows the use of adenoviral vectors to express therapeutic miRNAs or to be silenced by the RNAi machinery leading to safer vectors with a specific tropism. This article is part of a "Special Issue entitled:MicroRNAs in viral gene regulation".     

A novel vector-based method for exclusive overexpression of star-form microRNAs

The roles of microRNAs (miRNAs) as important regulators of gene expression have been studied intensively. Although most of these investigations have involved the highly expressed form of the two mature miRNA species, increasing evidence points to essential roles for star-form microRNAs (miRNA*), which are usually expressed at much lower levels. Owing to the nature of miRNA biogenesis, it is challenging to use plasmids containing miRNA coding sequences for gain-of-function experiments concerning the roles of microRNA* species. Synthetic microRNA mimics could introduce specific miRNA* species into cells, but this transient overexpression system has many shortcomings. Here, we report that specific miRNA* species can be overexpressed by introducing artificially designed stem-loop sequences into short hairpin RNA (shRNA) overexpression vectors. By our prototypic plasmid, designed to overexpress hsa-miR-146b-3p, we successfully expressed high levels of hsa-miR-146b-3p without detectable change of hsa-miR-146b-5p. Functional analysis involving luciferase reporter assays showed that, like natural miRNAs, the overexpressed hsa-miR-146b-3p inhibited target gene expression by 3'UTR seed pairing. Our demonstration that this method could overexpress two other miRNAs suggests that the approach should be broadly applicable. Our novel strategy opens the way for exclusively stable overexpression of miRNA* species and analyzing their unique functions both in vitro and in vivo.     

Polypyrimidine tract binding protein (hnRNP I) is possibly a conserved modulator of miRNA-mediated gene regulation

MiRNAs can regulate gene expression through versatile mechanisms that result in increased or decreased expression of the targeted mRNA and it could effect the expression of thousands of protein in a particular cell. An increasing body of evidence suggest that miRNAs action can be modulated by proteins that bind to the same 3'UTRs that are targeted by miRNAs, suggesting that other factors apart from miRNAs and their target sites determine miRNA-modulation of gene expression. We applied an affinity purification protocol using biotinylated let-7 miRNA inhibitor to isolate proteins that are involved in let-7 mediated gene regulation that resulted in an affinity purification of Polypyrimidine Tract Binding protein (PTB). Here we show that PTB interacts with miRNAs and human Argonaute 2 (hAgo2) through RNA as well as identified potential mammalian cellular targets that are co-regulated by PTB and hAgo2. In addition, using genetic approach, we have demonstrated that PTB genetically interacts with Caenorhabditis elegans let-7 indicating a conserved role for PTB in miRNA-mediated gene regulation.     

Uptake and Function Studies of Maternal Milk-derived MicroRNAs

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important regulators of cell-autonomous gene expression that influence many biological processes. They are also released from cells and are present in virtually all body fluids, including blood, urine, saliva, sweat, and milk. The functional role of nutritionally obtained extracellular miRNAs is controversial, and irrefutable demonstration of exogenous miRNA uptake by cells and canonical miRNA function is still lacking. Here we show that miRNAs are present at high levels in the milk of lactating mice. To investigate intestinal uptake of miRNAs in newborn mice, we employed genetic models in which newborn miR-375 and miR-200c/141 knockout mice received milk from wild-type foster mothers. Analysis of the intestinal epithelium, blood, liver, and spleen revealed no evidence for miRNA uptake. miR-375 levels in hepatocytes were at the limit of detection and remained orders of magnitude below the threshold for target gene regulation (between 1000 and 10,000 copies/cell). Furthermore, our study revealed rapid degradation of milk miRNAs in intestinal fluid. Together, our results indicate a nutritional rather than gene-regulatory role of miRNAs in the milk of newborn mice.     

MicroRNAs as genetic sculptors: Fishing for clues

microRNAs (miRNAs) encode small RNA molecules of ～22nts in length that regulate the deadenylation, translation, and decay of their target mRNAs. The identification of miRNAs in plants and animals has uncovered a new layer of gene regulation with important implications for development, cellular homeostasis and disease. Because each miRNA is predicted to regulate several hundred genes, a major challenge in the field remains to elucidate the precise roles for each miRNA and to understand the physiological relevance of individual miRNA–target interactions in vivo. Despite the wide variety of biological contexts where miRNAs function, a common theme emerges, whereby miRNAs shape gene expression within both spatial and temporal dimensions by removing messages from previous cellular states as well as modulating the levels of actively transcribed genes. This review will focus on the role that the teleost Danio rerio (zebrafish) has played in shaping our understanding of miRNA function in vertebrates.     

Impact of preovulatory estradiol concentrations on conceptus development and uterine gene expression

The objectives of this study included: (1) identify the expression of miRNAs specific to bovine cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) during late oogenesis, (2) characterize the expression of candidate miRNAs as well as some miRNA processing genes, and (3) computationally identify and characterize the expression of target mRNAs for candidate miRNAs. Small RNAs in the 16-27 bp range were isolated from pooled COCs aspirated from 1- to 10-mm follicles of beef cattle ovaries and used to construct a cDNA library. A total 1798 putative miRNA sequences from the cDNA library of small RNA were compared to known miRNAs. Sixty-four miRNA clusters matched previously reported sequences in the miRBase database and 5 miRNA clusters had not been reported. TaqMan miRNA assays were used to confirm the expression of let-7b, let-7i, and miR-106a from independent collections of COCs. Real-time PCR assays were used to characterize expression of miRNA processing genes and target mRNAs (MYC and WEE1A) for the candidate miRNAs from independent collections of COCs. Expression data were analyzed using general linear model procedures for analysis of variance. The expression of let-7b and let-7i were not different between the cellular populations from various sized follicles. However, miR-106a expression was greater (P<0.01) in oocytes compared with COCs and granulosa cells. Furthermore, all the miRNA processing genes have greater expression (P<0.001) in oocytes compared with COCs and granulosa cells. The expression of potential target mRNAs for let-7 and let-7i (i.e., MYC), and miR-106a (i.e., WEE1A) were decreased (P<0.05) in oocytes compared with COCs and granulosa cells. These results demonstrate specific miRNAs within bovine COCs during late oogenesis and provide some evidence that miRNAs may play a role regulating maternal mRNAs in bovine oocytes.     

红花microRNAs靶基因的生物信息学预测

miRNA是一类动、植物细胞中负责转录后调控的非编码RNA,植物的miRNA通常来源于具有茎环结构的单链RNA前体上,加工成熟后同ARGONAUTE转变成蛋白复合体结构,通过结合并沉默蛋白合成模板的方式关闭完整的基因表达网络。由于miRNA存在组织表达的特异性,且miRNA在植物中的表达高度保守。通过高通量测序获得的红花(Carthamus tinctorious L.)miRNA序列信息与红花转录EST数据库比对,通过靶基因预测筛选,对属于104个家族的173个红花miRNA进行预测,其中得到109个miRNAs对应调控的385个红花靶基因。并且通过Nr基因注释表明多数红花miRNA的靶基因编码包括调控细胞生长发育、信号转导及新陈代谢等相关的功能蛋白。     

Computational approaches for microRNA studies: a review

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are one class of tiny, endogenous RNAs that can regulate messenger RNA (mRNA) expression by targeting homologous sequences in mRNAs. Their aberrant expressions have been observed in many cancers and several miRNAs have been convincingly shown to play important roles in carcinogenesis. Since the discovery of this small regulator, computational methods have been indispensable tools in miRNA gene finding and functional studies. In this review we first briefly outline the biological findings of miRNA genes, such as genomic feature, biogenesis, gene structure, and functional mechanism. We then discuss in detail the three main aspects of miRNA computational studies: miRNA gene finding, miRNA target prediction, and regulation of miRNA genes. Finally, we provide perspectives on some emerging issues, including combinatorial regulation by miRNAs and functional binding sites beyond the 3′-untranslated region (3′UTR) of target mRNAs. Available online resources for miRNA computational studies are also provided.