Dataset Information

Identification of novel homologous microRNA genes in the rhesus macaque genome.

ABSTRACT:

Background

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are about 22 nucleotide (nt) endogenous small RNAs that negatively regulate gene expression. They are a recently described class of regulatory molecules that has biological implications for tumorigenesis, development, metabolism and viral diseases. To date, 533 miRNAs have been identified in human. However, only 71 miRNAs have been reported in rhesus macaque. The rhesus is widely used in medical research because of its genetic and physiological similarity to human. The rhesus shares approximately 93% similarity with human in genome sequences and miRNA genes are evolutionarily conserved. Therefore, we searched the rhesus genome for sequences similar to human miRNA precursor sequences to identify putative rhesus miRNA genes.

Results

In addition to 71 miRNAs previously reported, we identified 383 novel miRNA genes in the rhesus genome. We compared the total 454 miRNAs identified so far in rhesus to human homologs, 173 miRNA genes showed 100% homology in precursor sequences between rhesus and human; The remaining 281 show more than 90%, less than 100% homology in precursor sequences. Some miRNAs in the rhesus genome are present as clusters similar to human, such as miR-371/373, miR-367/302b, miR-17/92, or have multiple copies distributed in the same or different chromosomes. RT-PCR analysis of expression of eight rhesus miRNA genes in rhesus tissues demonstrated tissue-specific regulation of expression.

Conclusion

Identification of miRNA genes in rhesus will provide the resources for analysis of expression profiles in various tissues by creating a rhesus miRNA array, which is currently not available for this species. Investigation of rhesus miRNAs will also expand our understanding of their biological function through miRNA knockout, knockdown or overexpression.

SUBMITTER: Yue J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2254598 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Identification of novel homologous microRNA genes in the rhesus macaque genome.

Yue Junming J Sheng Yi Y Orwig Kyle E KE

BMC genomics 20080110

<h4>Background</h4>MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are about 22 nucleotide (nt) endogenous small RNAs that negatively regulate gene expression. They are a recently described class of regulatory molecules that has biological implications for tumorigenesis, development, metabolism and viral diseases. To date, 533 miRNAs have been identified in human. However, only 71 miRNAs have been reported in rhesus macaque. The rhesus is widely used in medical research because of its genetic and physiological similarity to ...[more]

PMID: 18186931

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Project description:BackgroundUntil recently, few genomic reagents specific for non-human primate research have been available. To address this need, we have constructed a macaque-specific high-density oligonucleotide microarray by using highly fragmented low-pass sequence contigs from the rhesus genome project together with the detailed sequence and exon structure of the human genome. Using this method, we designed oligonucleotide probes to over 17,000 distinct rhesus/human gene orthologs and increased by four-fold the number of available genes relative to our first-generation expressed sequence tag (EST)-derived array.ResultsWe constructed a database containing 248,000 exon sequences from 23,000 human RefSeq genes and compared each human exon with its best matching sequence in the January 2005 version of the rhesus genome project list of 486,000 DNA contigs. Best matching rhesus exon sequences for each of the 23,000 human genes were then concatenated in the proper order and orientation to produce a rhesus "virtual transcriptome." Microarray probes were designed, one per gene, to the region closest to the 3' untranslated region (UTR) of each rhesus virtual transcript. Each probe was compared to a composite rhesus/human transcript database to test for cross-hybridization potential yielding a final probe set representing 18,296 rhesus/human gene orthologs, including transcript variants, and over 17,000 distinct genes. We hybridized mRNA from rhesus brain and spleen to both the EST- and genome-derived microarrays. Besides four-fold greater gene coverage, the genome-derived array also showed greater mean signal intensities for genes present on both arrays. Genome-derived probes showed 99.4% identity when compared to 4,767 rhesus GenBank sequence tag site (STS) sequences indicating that early stage low-pass versions of complex genomes are of sufficient quality to yield valuable functional genomic information when combined with finished genome information from a closely related species.ConclusionThe number of different genes represented on microarrays for unfinished genomes can be greatly increased by matching known gene transcript annotations from a closely related species with sequence data from the unfinished genome. Signal intensity on both EST- and genome-derived arrays was highly correlated with probe distance from the 3' UTR, information often missing from ESTs yet present in early-stage genome projects.

Dataset Information

Identification of novel homologous microRNA genes in the rhesus macaque genome.

Background

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Identification of novel homologous microRNA genes in the rhesus macaque genome.

Similar Datasets

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