The expression profile of microRNAs in mouse embryos.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs), which are non-coding RNAs 18-25 nt in length, regulate a variety of biological processes, including vertebrate development. To identify new species of miRNA and to simultaneously obtain a comprehensive quantitative profile of small RNA expression in mouse embryos, we used the massively parallel signature sequencing technology that potentially identifies virtually all of the small RNAs in a sample. This approach allowed us to detect a total of 390 miRNAs, including 195 known miRNAs covering approximately 80% of previously registered mouse miRNAs as well as 195 new miRNAs, which are so far unknown in mouse. Some of these miRNAs showed temporal expression profiles during prenatal development (E9.5, E10.5 and E11.5). Several miRNAs were positioned in polycistron clusters, including one particular large transcription unit consisting of 16 known and 23 new miRNAs. Our results indicate existence of a significant number of new miRNAs expressed at specific stages of mammalian embryonic development and which were not detected by earlier methods.
Mineno
Junichi
J
Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Takara Bio Inc., Seta 3-4-1, Otsu, Shiga 520-2193, Japan.
Okamoto
Sachiko
S
Ando
Tatsuya
T
Sato
Masahiro
M
Chono
Hideto
H
Izu
Hiroyuki
H
Takayama
Masanori
M
Asada
Kiyozo
K
Mirochnitchenko
Oleg
O
Inouye
Masayori
M
Kato
Ikunoshin
I
D000818:Animals; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian / Q000378:metabolism*; D047108:Embryonic Development / Q000235:genetics; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D015723:Gene Library; D023281:Genomics; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering / Q000032:analysis
D035683:MicroRNAs; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering