title: Abundance of microRNA target motifs in the 3'-UTRs of 20527 human genes.
abstract: A mechanism, selective avoidance, proposes that microRNA (miRNA) target sites are selectively depleted in the 3'-UTRs of genes expressed at the same time and place as a miRNA. If this mechanism is ubiquitous, the target motif occurrences in the 3'-UTRs would be decreased. To test this hypothesis, we examined miRNA target motif occurrences in the 3'- and 5'-UTRs of 20527 human protein-coding genes. The results revealed that miRNA target motifs appeared more frequently than non-target motifs and were enriched in the 3'-UTRs. This enrichment was relatively reduced in a set of 2525 genes coexpressed with miR-124a in the prefrontal cortex, but still remained at a high level, suggesting that miRNA target motifs are fostered by some other factors that surpass the influence of selective avoidance.
authors.affiliation: Information Technology Center, Kagawa University, Ikenobe 1750-1, Miki-cho, Kita-gun, Kagawa 761-0793, Japan. iwama@med.kagawa-u.ac.jp <iwama@med.kagawa-u.ac.jp>
authors.forename: Hisakazu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Iwama
authors.forename: Tsutomu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Masaki
authors.forename: Shigeki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kuriyama
mesh_terms: D020413:3' Untranslated Regions / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D005796:Genes; D015894:Genome, Human; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000378:metabolism*; D016366:Open Reading Frames
chemical_list: D020413:3' Untranslated Regions; D035683:MicroRNAs