Name: mirmachine: a one-stop shop for plant mirna annotation
Uploaded: 2021-05-01T13:30:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about mirMachine: A One-Stop Shop for Plant miRNA Annotation at JoVE.com

1. Software dependencies and installation
<ol>
	<li>Install software dependencies from their home site or using conda.
	<ol>
		<li>Download and install Perl, if it is not already installed, from its home site (https://www.perl.org/get.html). 
		NOTE: Represented results were predicted using Perl v5.32.0.</li>
		<li>Download Blast+, an alignment program, from its home site (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279671/) as an executable and as source code. 
		NOTE: Represented results were predicted using the ...

<ol>
	<li>Voinnet, O. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Origin,+biogenesis,+and+activity+of+plant+microRNAs.">Origin, biogenesis, and activity of plant microRNAs.</a> Cell. 136 (4), 669-687 (2009).</li><li>Budak, H., Akpinar, B. A. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Plant+miRNAs:+biogenesis,+organization+and+origins.">Plant miRNAs: biogenesis, organization and origins.</a> Functional &amp; Integrative Genomics. 15 (5), 523-531 (2015).</li><li>Lee, R. C., Feinbaum, R. L., Ambros, V. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=The+C.+elegans+heterochronic+gene+lin-4+encodes+small+RNAs+with+antisense+complementarity+to+lin-14.">The C. elegans heterochronic gene lin-4 encodes small RNAs with antisense complementarity to lin-14.</a> Cell. 75 (5), 843-854 (1993).</li><li>Zhang, L., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Exogenous+plant+MIR168a+specifically+targets+mammalian+LDLRAP1:+evidence+of+cross-kingdom+regulation+by+microRNA.">Exogenous plant MIR168a specifically targets mammalian LDLRAP1: evidence of cross-kingdom regulation by microRNA.</a> Cell Research. 22 (1), 107-126 (2012).</li><li>Pang, K. C., Frith, M. C., Mattick, J. S. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Rapid+evolution+of+noncoding+RNAs:+Lack+of+conservation+does+not+mean+lack+of+function.">Rapid evolution of noncoding RNAs: Lack of conservation does not mean lack of function.</a> Trends in Genetics. 22 (1), 1-5 (2006).</li><li>Guleria, P., Mahajan, M., Bhardwaj, J., Yadav, S. K. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Plant+small+RNAs:+biogenesis,+mode+of+action+and+their+roles+in+abiotic+stresses.">Plant small RNAs: biogenesis, mode of action and their roles in abiotic stresses.</a> Genomics, Proteomics and Bioinformatics. 9 (6), 183-199 (2011).</li><li>Jones-Rhoades, M. W., Bartel, D. P., Bartel, B. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=MicroRNAs+and+their+regulatory+roles+in+plants.">MicroRNAs and their regulatory roles in plants.</a> Annual Review of Plant Biology. 57, 19-53 (2006).</li><li>Singh, A., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Plant+small+RNAs:+advancement+in+the+understanding+of+biogenesis+and+role+in+plant+development.">Plant small RNAs: advancement in the understanding of biogenesis and role in plant development.</a> Planta. 248 (3), 545-558 (2018).</li><li>Lucas, S. J., Budak, H. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Sorting+the+wheat+from+the+chaff:+identifying+miRNAs+in+genomic+survey+sequences+of+Triticum+aestivum+chromosome+1AL.">Sorting the wheat from the chaff: identifying miRNAs in genomic survey sequences of Triticum aestivum chromosome 1AL.</a> PloS One. 7 (7), 40859 (2012).</li><li>Li, S., Castillo-Gonz&#225;lez, C., Yu, B., Zhang, X. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=The+functions+of+plant+small+RNAs+in+development+and+in+stress+responses.">The functions of plant small RNAs in development and in stress responses.</a> Plant Journal. 90 (4), 654-670 (2017).</li><li>Lee, Y., Jeon, K., Lee, J. T., Kim, S., Kim, V. N. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=MicroRNA+maturation:+Stepwise+processing+and+subcellular+localization.">MicroRNA maturation: Stepwise processing and subcellular localization.</a> EMBO Journal. 21 (17), 4663-4670 (2002).</li><li>Lee, Y., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=MicroRNA+genes+are+transcribed+by+RNA+polymerase+II.">MicroRNA genes are transcribed by RNA polymerase II.</a> EMBO Journal. 23 (2), 4051-4060 (2004).</li><li>Bartel, D. P. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=MicroRNAs:+Genomics,+biogenesis,+mechanism,+and+function.">MicroRNAs: Genomics, biogenesis, mechanism, and function.</a> Cell. 116 (2), 281-297 (2004).</li><li>Lee, Y., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=The+nuclear+RNase+III+Drosha+initiates+microRNA+processing.">The nuclear RNase III Drosha initiates microRNA processing.</a> Nature. 425 (6956), 415-419 (2003).</li><li>Meyers, B. C., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Criteria+for+annotation+of+plant+microRNAs.">Criteria for annotation of plant microRNAs.</a> Plant Cell. 20 (12), 3186-3190 (2008).</li><li>Sanei, M., Chen, X. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Mechanisms+of+microRNA+turnover.">Mechanisms of microRNA turnover.</a> Current Opinion in Plant Biology. 27, 199-206 (2015).</li><li>Li, J., Yang, Z., Yu, B., Liu, J., Chen, X. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Methylation+protects+miRNAs+and+siRNAs+from+a+3&#8242;-end+uridylation+activity+in+Arabidopsis.">Methylation protects miRNAs and siRNAs from a 3&#8242;-end uridylation activity in Arabidopsis.</a> Current Biology. 15 (16), 1501-1507 (2005).</li><li>Rogers, K., Chen, X. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Biogenesis,+turnover,+and+mode+of+action+of+plant+microRNAs.">Biogenesis, turnover, and mode of action of plant microRNAs.</a> Plant Cell. 25 (7), 2383-2399 (2013).</li><li>Axtell, M. J., Meyers, B. C. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Revisiting+criteria+for+plant+microRNA+annotation+in+the+Era+of+big+data.">Revisiting criteria for plant microRNA annotation in the Era of big data.</a> Plant Cell. 30 (2), 272-284 (2018).</li><li>Camacho, C., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=BLAST+:+architecture+and+applications.">BLAST+: architecture and applications.</a> BMC Bioinformatics. 10 (1), 421 (2009).</li><li>Markham, N. R. N., Zuker, M. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=UNAFold:+Software+for+nucleic+acid+folding+and+hybridization.">UNAFold: Software for nucleic acid folding and hybridization.</a> Methods in Molecular Biology. 453, 3-31 (2008).</li><li>Alptekin, B., Akpinar, B. A., Budak, H. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=A+comprehensive+prescription+for+plant+miRNA+identification.">A comprehensive prescription for plant miRNA identification.</a> Frontiers in Plant Science. 7, 2058 (2017).</li><li>Zhang, B., Pan, X., Cannon, C. H., Cobb, G. P., Anderson, T. A. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Conservation+and+divergence+of+plant+microRNA+genes.">Conservation and divergence of plant microRNA genes.</a> Plant Journal. 46 (2), 243-259 (2006).</li><li>Appels, R., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Shifting+the+limits+in+wheat+research+and+breeding+using+a+fully+annotated+reference+genome.">Shifting the limits in wheat research and breeding using a fully annotated reference genome.</a> Science. 361 (6403), 7191 (2018).</li><li>Wang, Y., Kuang, Z., Li, L., Yang, X. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=A+bioinformatics+pipeline+to+accurately+and+efficiently+analyze+the+microRNA+transcriptomes+in+plants.">A bioinformatics pipeline to accurately and efficiently analyze the microRNA transcriptomes in plants.</a> Journal of Visualized Experiments: JoVE. (155), e59864 (2020).</li><li>Kozomara, A., Griffiths-Jones, S. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=MiRBase:+Annotating+high+confidence+microRNAs+using+deep+sequencing+data.">MiRBase: Annotating high confidence microRNAs using deep sequencing data.</a> Nucleic Acids Research. 42, 68-73 (2014).</li><li>Lorenz, R., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=ViennaRNA+Package+2.0.">ViennaRNA Package 2.0.</a> Algorithms for Molecular Biology. 6 (1), 26 (2011).</li><li>Wicker, T., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Impact+of+transposable+elements+on+genome+structure+and+evolution+in+bread+wheat.">Impact of transposable elements on genome structure and evolution in bread wheat.</a> Genome Biology. 19 (1), 103 (2018).</li><li>Flavell, R. B., Bennett, M. D., Smith, J. B., Smith, D. B. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Genome+size+and+the+proportion+of+repeated+nucleotide+sequence+DNA+in+plants.">Genome size and the proportion of repeated nucleotide sequence DNA in plants.</a> Biochemical Genetics. 12 (4), 257-269 (1974).</li><li>Wicker, T., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=The+repetitive+landscape+of+the+5100+Mbp+barley+genome.">The repetitive landscape of the 5100 Mbp barley genome.</a> Mobile DNA. 8, 22 (2017).</li><li>Yang, Q., Ye, Q. A., Liu, Y. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Mechanism+of+siRNA+production+from+repetitive+DNA.">Mechanism of siRNA production from repetitive DNA.</a> Genes and Development. 29 (5), 526-537 (2015).</li><li>Lam, J. K. W., Chow, M. Y. T., Zhang, Y., Leung, S. W. S. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=siRNA+versus+miRNA+as+therapeutics+for+gene+silencing.">siRNA versus miRNA as therapeutics for gene silencing.</a> Molecular Therapy. Nucleic Acids. 4 (9), 252 (2015).</li><li>Bartel, B. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=MicroRNAs+directing+siRNA+biogenesis.">MicroRNAs directing siRNA biogenesis.</a> Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. 12 (7), 569-571 (2005).</li><li>Meng, Y., Shao, C., Wang, H., Chen, M. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Are+all+the+miRBase-registered+microRNAs+true?+A+structure-+and+expression-based+re-examination+in+plants.">Are all the miRBase-registered microRNAs true? A structure- and expression-based re-examination in plants.</a> RNA Biology. 9 (3), 249-253 (2012).</li><li>Berezikov, E., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Evolutionary+flux+of+canonical+microRNAs+and+mirtrons+in+Drosophila.">Evolutionary flux of canonical microRNAs and mirtrons in Drosophila.</a> Nature Genetics. 42 (1), 6-9 (2010).</li></ol>

Our miRNA pipeline, SUmir, has been used for the identification of many plant miRNAs for the last decade. Here, we developed a new, fully automated, and freely available miRNA identification and annotation pipeline, mirMachine. Furthermore, a number of miRNA identification pipelines including, but not limited to the previous pipeline, were dependent on UNAfold software21, which became a commercial software over time, although once being freely available. This new and fully automated mirMachine is ...

Advances in next generation sequencing technologies have widened the understanding of RNA structures and regulatory elements, revealing functionally important non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs). Among different types of ncRNAs, microRNAs (miRNAs) constitute a fundamental regulatory class of small RNAs with a length between 19 and 24 nucleotides in plants1,2. Since the discovery of the first miRNA in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans3, the presence and the functions of miRNAs have been studied extensively in animal and plant genomes as well4,5,6. miRNAs function by targeting mRNAs for cleavage or translational repression7. Accumulating evidence has also shown that miRNAs are involved in a wide range of biological processes in plants including growth and development8, self-biogenesis9, and several biotic and abiotic stress responses10.
In plants, miRNAs are initially processed from long primary transcripts called pri-miRNAs11. These pri-miRNAs generated by RNA polymerase II inside the nucleus are long transcripts forming an imperfect fold-back structure12. The pri-miRNAs later undergo a cleavage process to produce endogenous single-stranded (ss) hairpin precursors of miRNAs called pre-miRNAs11. The pre-miRNA forms a hairpin-like structure wherein a single strand folds into a double-stranded structure to excise an miRNA duplex (miRNA/miRNA*)13. Dicer-like protein cuts both strands of the miRNA/miRNA* duplex, leaving 2-nucleotide 3&#39;-overhangs14,15. The miRNA duplex is methylated inside the nucleus, which protects the 3&#39;-end of the miRNA from degradation and uridylation activity16,17. A helicase unwinds the methylated miRNA duplex after export and exposes the mature miRNA to the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) in the cytosol18. One strand of the duplex is mature miRNA incorporated into RISC , whereas the other strand, miRNA*, is degraded. The miRNA-RISC complex binds to the target sequence leading to either mRNA degradation in case of full complementarity or translational repression in case of partial complementarity13.
Based on the expression and biogenesis features, guidelines for miRNA annotation have been described15,19. With the defined guidelines, Lucas and Budak developed the SUmir pipeline to perform a homology-based in silico miRNA identification in plants9. The SUmir pipeline was composed of two scripts: SUmirFind and SUmirFold. SUmirFind performs similarity searches against known miRNA datasets through National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Basic Local Alignment Search tool (BLAST) screening with modified parameters to include hits with only 2 or fewer mismatches and to avoid bias towards shorter hits (blastn-short -ungapped -penalty -1 -reward 1). SUmirFold evaluates the secondary structure of the putative miRNA sequences from BLAST20 results using UNAfold21. SUmirFold differentiates miRNAs from small interfering RNAs by the identification of the characteristics of hairpin structure. Moreover, it differentiates miRNAs from other ssRNAs such as tRNA and rRNA by the parameters, minimum fold energy index &#62; 0.67 and GC content of 24-71%. This pipeline has been recently updated by adding two additional steps to (i) increase sensitivity, (ii) increase annotation accuracy, and (iii) provide genomic distribution of the predicted miRNA genes22. Given the high conservation of plant miRNA sequences23, this pipeline was originally designed for homology-based miRNA prediction. Novel miRNAs, however, could not be accurately identified with this bioinformatics analysis as it heavily relied on sequence conservation of miRNAs between closely related species.
This paper presents a new and fully automated miRNA pipeline, mirMachine that 1) can identify known and novel miRNAs more accurately (for example, the pipeline now uses sRNA-seq-based novel miRNA predictions as well as homology-based miRNA identification) and 2) is fully automated and freely available. The outputs have also included the genomic distributions of the predicted miRNAs. mirMachine was tested for both homology-based and sRNA-seq-based predictions in wheat and Arabidopsis genomes. Although initially released as free software, UNAfold became a commercial software in the last decade. With this upgrade, the secondary structure prediction tool was switched from UNAfold to RNAfold so that mirMachine can be freely available. Users can now execute a short submission script to run the fully automated mirMachine pipeline (examples are provided at https://github.com/hbusra/mirMachine.git).

<table border="1" fo:keep-together.within-page="1" fo:keep-with-next.within-page="always">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279671/</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Blast+</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>https://github.com/hbusra/mirMachine.git</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td>mirMachine submission script</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>https://www.perl.org/get.html</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Perl</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>https://www.tbi.univie.ac.at/RNA/</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td>RNAfold</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Arabidopsis TAIR10</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Triticum aestivum (wheat, IWGSC RefSeq v2)</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

mirmachine: a one-stop shop for plant mirna annotation

Of different types of noncoding RNAs, microRNAs (miRNAs) have arguably been in the spotlight over the last decade. As post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression, miRNAs play key roles in various cellular pathways, including both development and response to a/biotic stress, such as drought and diseases. Having high-quality reference genome sequences enabled identification and annotation of miRNAs in several plant species, where miRNA sequences are highly conserved. As computational miRNA identification and annotation processes are mostly error-prone processes, homology-based predictions increase prediction accuracy. We developed and have improved the miRNA annotation pipeline, SUmir, in the last decade, which has been used for several plant genomes since then. 
This study presents a fully automated, new miRNA pipeline, mirMachine (miRNA Machine), by (i) adding an additional filtering step on the secondary structure predictions, (ii) making it fully automated, and (iii) introducing new options to predict either known miRNA based on homology or novel miRNAs based on small RNA sequencing reads using the previous pipeline. The new miRNA pipeline, mirMachine, was tested using The Arabidopsis Information Resource, TAIR10, release of the Arabidopsis genome and the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC) wheat reference genome v2.

The miRNA pipeline, mirMachine, described above was applied to the test data for the fast evaluation of the performance of the pipeline. Only the high-confidence plant miRNAs deposited at miRBase v22.1 were screened against the chromosome 5A of IWGSC wheat RefSeq genome v224. mirMachine_find returned 312 hits for the nonredundant list of 189 high-confidence miRNAs with a maximum of 1 mismatch allowed (Table 1). mirMachine_fold classified 49 of them as putative miRNAs depending on ...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about mirMachine: A One-Stop Shop for Plant miRNA Annotation at JoVE.com

mirMachine: A One-Stop Shop for Plant miRNA Annotation

Herein, we present a new and fully automated miRNA pipeline, mirMachine that 1) can identify known and novel miRNAs more accurately and 2) is fully automated and freely available. Users can now execute a short submission script to run the fully automated mirMachine pipeline.

Of different types of noncoding RNAs, microRNAs (miRNAs) have arguably been in the spotlight over the last decade. As post-transcriptional regulators of ...

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