title: Systematic investigation of Amphioxus (Branchiostoma floridae) microRNAs.
abstract: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) participate in various biological processes via controlling gene activity. Amphioxus is the best available stand-in as the proximate invertebrate ancestor of the vertebrates. Here, we systematically investigated the miRNAs in amphioxus. First, we identified 245 candidate amphioxus miRNAs, in which 183 miRNAs were firstly reported. Second, we gave evidences to support a birth-and-death process of miRNA genes in some families and gave implications for the functional diversification of miRNA during evolution. Third, we identified 47 development-specific expression miRNAs. We found that only 19 miRNAs were expressed in all developmental stages, 16 miRNAs were neurula-specific and 13 miRNAs were larva-specific. In addition, these potential miRNA-targeting genes were mainly classified into development, muscle formation, cell adhesion, and gene regulation categories. Finally, we found 79 immune related genes targeted by 136 miRNAs in amphioxus. In conclusion, our results take an insight into both the function and evolution of the amphioxus miRNAs.
authors: Laboratory for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics & Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210046, China.
authors: Xue
authors: X
authors: Zhou
authors: Ping
authors: P
authors: Jin
authors: Sheng
authors: S
authors: Qin
authors: Liming
authors: L
authors: Chen
authors: Fei
authors: F
authors: Ma
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D043344:Chordata / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D019295:Computational Biology; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs