a-bioinformatics-pipeline-to-accurately-efficiently-analyze-microrna

A Bioinformatics Pipeline to Accurately and Efficiently Analyze the MicroRNA Transcriptomes in Plants

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are 20- to 24-nucleotide (nt) endogenous small RNAs (sRNAs) extensively existing in plants and animals that play potent roles in ...

Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences

Peking University

Two major challenges arise when employing next-generation sequencing methods to comprehensively identify microRNAs (miRNAs) in plants: (i) how to minimize the false-positive inheritable to computational predictions and (ii) how to minimize the computational time required for analyzing the miRNA transcriptome in plants with complex and large genomes.

miRDeep-P2: accurate and fast analysis of the microRNA transcriptome in plants.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules that function as diverse endogenous gene regulators at the post-transcriptional level. In the past two decades, as research effort on miRNA identification, function and evolution has soared, so has the demand for miRNA databases. However, the current plant miRNA databases suffer from several typical drawbacks, including a lack of entries for many important species, uneven annotation standards across different species, abundant questionable entries, and limited annotation. To address these issues, we developed a knowledge-based database called Plant miRNA Encyclopedia (PmiREN, http://www.pmiren.com/), which was based on uniform processing of sequenced small RNA libraries using miRDeep-P2, followed by manual curation using newly updated plant miRNA identification criteria, and comprehensive annotation. PmiREN currently contains 16,422 high confidence novel miRNA loci in 88 plant species and 3,966 retrieved from miRBase. For every miRNA entry, information on precursor sequence, precursor secondary structure, expression pattern, clusters and synteny in the genome, potential targets supported by Parallel Analysis of RNA Ends (PARE) sequencing, and references is attached whenever possible. PmiREN is hierarchically accessible and has eight built-in search engines. We believe PmiREN is useful for plant miRNA cataloguing and data mining, therefore a resource for data-driven miRNA research in plants.

Zheng Kuang

Beijing Key Laboratory of Agricultural Genetic Resources and Biotechnology,
Beijing Agro-Biotechnology Research Center,
Beijing Key Laboratory of Agricultural Genetic Resources and Biotechnology, Beijing Agro-Biotechnology Research Center

Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences

A Bioinformatics Pipeline to Accurately and Efficiently Analyze the MicroRNA Transcriptomes in Plants