title: Mammalian microRNAs derived from genomic repeats.
abstract: In this article, we show that a subset of conventional mammalian microRNAs is derived from LINE-2 transposable elements and other genome repeats. These repeat-derived microRNAs arise from conventional precursor hairpins and are distinct from the rasiRNAs, which appear to be processed from long double-stranded RNA precursors. The insertion of transposable elements into new genomic sites appears to be one of the driving-forces that create new microRNAs during mammalian evolution. Two of the LINE-2-derived microRNAs exhibit perfect complementarity to a large family of mRNA and EST transcripts that contain portions of MIR and other LINE-2 elements in their 3'-untranslated regions.
authors.affiliation: University of Illinois at Chicago, UIC Psychiatric Institute, MC 912, 1601 W. Taylor Street, Chicago, IL 60612, USA. smalheiser@psych.uic.edu
authors.forename: Neil R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Smalheiser
authors.forename: Vetle I
authors.initials: VI
authors.lastname: Torvik
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D019295:Computational Biology; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D006801:Humans; D020084:Long Interspersed Nucleotide Elements; D051379:Mice; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D051381:Rats; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D035683:MicroRNAs; D012333:RNA, Messenger