title: Systematic study of Drosophila microRNA functions using a collection of targeted knockout mutations.
abstract: MicroRNAs are abundant in animal genomes, yet little is known about their functions in vivo. Here, we report the production of 80 new Drosophila miRNA mutants by targeted homologous recombination. These mutants remove 104 miRNAs. Together with 15 previously reported mutants, this collection includes 95 mutants deleting 130 miRNAs. Collectively, these genes produce over 99% of all Drosophila miRNAs, measured by miRNA sequence reads. We present a survey of developmental and adult miRNA phenotypes. Over 80% of the mutants showed at least one phenotype using a p < 0.01 significance threshold. We observed a significant correlation between miRNA abundance and phenotypes related to survival and lifespan, but not to most other phenotypes. miRNA cluster mutants were no more likely than single miRNA mutants to produce significant phenotypes. This mutant collection will provide a resource for future analysis of the biological roles of Drosophila miRNAs.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, 61 Biopolis Drive, Singapore 138673, Singapore.
authors.forename: Ya-Wen
authors.initials: YW
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, 61 Biopolis Drive, Singapore 138673, Singapore.
authors.forename: Shilin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, 61 Biopolis Drive, Singapore 138673, Singapore.
authors.forename: Ruifen
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Weng
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, 61 Biopolis Drive, Singapore 138673, Singapore.
authors.forename: Pushpa
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Verma
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, 61 Biopolis Drive, Singapore 138673, Singapore.
authors.forename: Jan-Michael
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Kugler
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, 61 Biopolis Drive, Singapore 138673, Singapore.
authors.forename: Marita
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Buescher
authors.affiliation: Procter and Gamble International Operations SA Singapore Branch, Quantitative Sciences, Statistics Asia, 70 Biopolis Street, Singapore 138547, Singapore.
authors.forename: Sigrid
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rouam
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, 61 Biopolis Drive, Singapore 138673, Singapore; Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117543, Singapore. Electronic address: scohen@sund.ku.dk.
authors.forename: Stephen M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Cohen
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D019295:Computational Biology; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D008297:Male; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D005810:Multigene Family; D009154:Mutation; D010641:Phenotype; D011995:Recombination, Genetic
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs