title: Biased hosting of intronic microRNA genes.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in an abundant class of post-transcriptional regulation activated through binding to the 3(') -untranslated region (UTR) of mRNAs. The current wealth of mammalian miRNA genes results mostly from genomic duplication events. Many of these events are located within introns of transcriptional units. In order to better understand the genomic expansion of miRNA genes, we investigated the distribution of intronic miRNAs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We observe that miRNA genes are hosted within introns of short genes much larger than expected by chance.
  
  
  METHODS
  We explore several explanations for this phenomenon and conclude that miRNA integration into short genes might be evolutionary favorable due to interaction with the pre-mRNA splicing mechanism.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Golan
authors.forename: Carmit
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Levy
authors.forename: Brad
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Friedman
authors.forename: Noam
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shomron
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003198:Computer Simulation; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D007438:Introns / Q000235:genetics*; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D012322:RNA Precursors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D012326:RNA Splicing
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs; D012322:RNA Precursors