title: Functional evolution of cardiac microRNAs in heart development and functions.
abstract: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of endogenous small noncoding RNAs that regulate gene expression either by degrading target mRNAs or by suppressing protein translation. miRNAs have been found to be involved in many biological processes, such as development, differentiation, and growth. However, the evolution of miRNA regulatory functions and networks has not been well studied. In this study, we conducted a cross-species analysis to study the evolution of cardiac miRNAs and their regulatory functions and networks. We found that conserved cardiac miRNA target genes have maintained highly conserved cardiac functions. Additionally, most of cardiac miRNA target genes in human with annotations of cardiac functions evolved from the corresponding homologous targets, which are also involved in heart development-related functions. On the basis of these results, we investigated the functional evolution of cardiac miRNAs and presented a functional evolutionary map. From this map, we identified the evolutionary time at which the cardiac miRNAs became involved in heart development or function and found that the biological processes of heart development evolved earlier than those of heart functions, for example, heart contraction/relaxation or cardiac hypertrophy. Our study of the evolution of the cardiac miRNA regulatory networks revealed the emergence of new regulatory functional branches during evolution. Furthermore, we discovered that early evolved cardiac miRNA target genes tend to participate in the early stages of heart development. This study sheds light on the evolution of developmental features of genes regulated by cardiac miRNAs.
authors: Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago.
authors: Chen-Ching
authors: CC
authors: Lin
authors: Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago.
authors: Yao-Ming
authors: YM
authors: Chang
authors: Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors: Cheng-Tsung
authors: CT
authors: Pan
authors: Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors: Chien-Chang
authors: CC
authors: Chen
authors: Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors: Li
authors: L
authors: Ling
authors: Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors: Ku-Chi
authors: KC
authors: Tsao
authors: Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors: Ruey-Bing
authors: RB
authors: Yang
authors: Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago whli@sinica.edu.tw.
authors: Wen-Hsiung
authors: WH
authors: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D006321:Heart / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D009206:Myocardium / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs
keywords: heart development; heart function; microRNA; regulatory evolution