Project description:Human cells generate a vast complexity of non-coding RNAs, the so called “RNA dark matter”, which includes small RNA transcriptome represented by hundreds of thousands of entities which outnumber members of known classes of small RNAs by orders of magnitude. Biogenesis, biological relevance, and mechanisms of action of most of these transcripts remain unknown and many of them are assumed to represent degradation products of known genes. In this study, we aimed to functionally characterize human sRNA transcriptome by attempting to answer the following question — can a significant number of novel sRNAs correspond to novel members of known classes of sRNA, specifically, miRNAs? We show that at the very least, 2726 novel miRNAs exist in just one human cell line. Furthermore, potentially thousands other novel members of this class may exist. Strikingly, many novel miRNAs are derived from exons of protein-coding genes. These results suggest that mammalian novel sRNA transcriptome harbors multitude of novel functional transcripts, at least some of which belong to known classes of sRNAs.
Project description:MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small non-coding single-stranded RNAs whose dysregulation of expression plays an important role in cancer development. Circulating miRNAs are novel biomarkers in several cancers. Thus, we explored whether the miRNAs in plasma could be useful clinical biomarkers for multiple myeloma (MM) patients. The expression levels of four miRNAs in plasma were upregulated while eight miRNAs were downregulated in MM patients compared with healthy controls according to microarray. MiRNA microarray was conducted to determine deregulated miRNAs in plasma of 9 MM patients and 7 healthy controls.
Project description:MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small non-coding single-stranded RNAs whose dysregulation of expression plays an important role in cancer development. Circulating miRNAs are novel biomarkers in several cancers. Thus, we explored whether the miRNAs in plasma could be useful clinical biomarkers for multiple myeloma (MM) patients. The expression levels of four miRNAs in plasma were upregulated while eight miRNAs were downregulated in MM patients compared with healthy controls according to microarray.
Project description:Motivation: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short regulatory RNAs derived from a longer precursor RNA. miRNA biogenesis has been studied in animals and plants, recently elucidating more diverse and complex aspects, such as non-conserved, speciesspecific, and heterogeneous miRNA precursor populations. Small RNA sequencing data can be used to computationally determine genomic loci of miRNA precursors. The challenge is to predict a valid miRNA precursor from inhomogeneous read coverage: while the mature miRNA typically produces hundreds of sequence reads, the remaining part of the precursor is covered very sparsely. Results: We introduce a new conservation-independent method for the identification of miRNA precursors, that allows for speciesspecific heterogeneous precursor populations. The algorithm requires small RNA sequencing data and evaluates precursor secondary structures, with key parameters that can be adjusted based on the specific organism under investigation (within animals, plants, algae). We illustrate the validity of results from our algorithm using sequencing data for the two Volvocine algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (Chlamydomonas) and Volvox carteri (Volvox). Both organisms show little cross-species miRNA sequence conservation, and a heterogeneous miRNA precursor population. We validate our list of Chlamydomonas miRNAs with annotated miRNAs, and demonstrate excellent agreement. Furthermore, we are able to identify additional novel miRNA precursors, with structures ranging from simple mammalian-like hairpins to precursor structures indicating the creation of multiple mature/star miRNA duplexes. Novel miRNAs identified in Volvox show no similarity to mature miRNAs in Chlamydomonas. These results confirm the need for conservationindependent miRNA identification methods. Examination of small RNAs of Volvox carteri during different stages of its life cycle