title: A Comprehensive Analysis of miRNA/isomiR Expression with Gender Difference.
abstract: Although microRNAs (miRNAs) have been widely studied as epigenetic regulation molecules, fewer studies focus on the gender difference at the miRNA and isomiR expression levels. In this study, we aim to understand the potential relationships between gender difference and miRNA/isomiR expression through a comprehensive analysis of small RNA-sequencing datasets based on different human diseases and tissues. Based on specific samples from males and females, we determined that some miRNAs may be diversely expressed between different tissues and genders. Thus, these miRNAs may exhibit inconsistent and even opposite expression between males and females. According to deregulated miRNA expression profiles, some dominantly expressed miRNA loci were selected to analyze isomiR expression patterns using rates of dominant isomiRs. In some miRNA loci, isomiRs showed statistical significance between tumor and normal samples and between males and females samples, suggesting that isomiR expression patterns are not always invariable but may vary between males and females, as well as among different tissues, tumors, and normal samples. The divergence implicates the fluctuation in the expression of miRNA and its detailed expression at the isomiR levels. The divergence also indicates that gender difference may be an important factor that affects the screening of disease-associated miRNAs and isomiRs. This study suggests that miRNA/isomiR expression and gender difference may be more complex than previously assumed and should be further studied according to specific samples from males or females.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioinformatics, School of Geographic and Biologic Information, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Molecular and Medical Biotechnology, College of Life Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Tingming
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Functional Macromolecular Biophysics, Institute of Biophysics, Dezhou University, Dezhou, China.
authors.forename: Jiafeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: School of Computer Science and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China.|State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, NanKai University, Tianjin, China.
authors.forename: Quan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zou
mesh_terms: D004194:Disease / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D015233:Models, Statistical; D012727:Sex Characteristics
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs