Many novel mammalian microRNA candidates identified by extensive cloning and RAKE analysis.
MicroRNAs are 20- to 23-nucleotide RNA molecules that can regulate gene expression. Currently > 400 microRNAs have been experimentally identified in mammalian genomes, whereas estimates go up to 1000 and beyond. Here we show that many more mammalian microRNAs exist. We discovered novel microRNA candidates using two approaches: testing of computationally predicted microRNAs by a modified microarray-based detection system, and cloning and sequencing of large numbers of small RNAs from different human and mouse tissues. Together these efforts experimentally identified 348 novel mouse and 81 novel human microRNA candidate genes. Most novel microRNAs candidates are not conserved beyond mammals, and ~10% are taxon-specific. Our analyses indicate that the entire microRNA repertoire is not remotely exhausted.
Berezikov
Eugene
E
Hubrecht Laboratory, 3584 CT Utrecht, The Netherlands.
van Tetering
Geert
G
Verheul
Mark
M
van de Belt
Jose
J
van Laake
Linda
L
Vos
Joost
J
Verloop
Robert
R
van de Wetering
Marc
M
Guryev
Victor
V
Takada
Shuji
S
van Zonneveld
Anton Jan
AJ
Mano
Hiroyuki
H
Plasterk
Ronald
R
Cuppen
Edwin
E
D000818:Animals; D020029:Base Pairing; D001483:Base Sequence; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice / Q000235:genetics*; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*; D046228:Microarray Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
D035683:MicroRNAs