title: Conserved seed pairing, often flanked by adenosines, indicates that thousands of human genes are microRNA targets.
abstract: We predict regulatory targets of vertebrate microRNAs (miRNAs) by identifying mRNAs with conserved complementarity to the seed (nucleotides 2-7) of the miRNA. An overrepresentation of conserved adenosines flanking the seed complementary sites in mRNAs indicates that primary sequence determinants can supplement base pairing to specify miRNA target recognition. In a four-genome analysis of 3' UTRs, approximately 13,000 regulatory relationships were detected above the estimate of false-positive predictions, thereby implicating as miRNA targets more than 5300 human genes, which represented 30% of our gene set. Targeting was also detected in open reading frames. In sum, well over one third of human genes appear to be conserved miRNA targets.
authors.forename: Benjamin P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.forename: Christopher B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Burge
authors.forename: David P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Bartel
mesh_terms: D020413:3' Untranslated Regions / Q000235:genetics; D000241:Adenosine / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002645:Chickens; D004285:Dogs; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000235:genetics; D018390:Gene Targeting / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization / Q000502:physiology; D009711:Nucleotides / Q000378:metabolism*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D051381:Rats
chemical_list: D020413:3' Untranslated Regions; D035683:MicroRNAs; D009711:Nucleotides; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D000241:Adenosine