title: Bioinformatics Prediction and Experimental Validation of MicroRNAs Involved in Cross-Kingdom Interaction.
abstract: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small noncoding RNAs that act as efficient post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression. In 2012, the first cross-kingdom miRNA-based interaction had been evidenced, demonstrating that exogenous miRNAs act in a manner of mammalian functional miRNAs. Starting from this evidence, we defined the concept of cross-kingdom functional homology between plant and mammalian miRNAs as a needful requirement for vegetal miRNA to explicit a regulation mechanism into the host mammalian cell, comparable to the endogenous one. Then, we proposed a new dedicated algorithm to compare plant and mammalian miRNAs, searching for functional sequence homologies between them, and we developed a web software called MirCompare. We also predicted human genes regulated by the selected plant miRNAs, and we determined the role of exogenous miRNAs in the perturbation of intracellular interaction networks. Finally, as already performed by Pirrò and coworkers, the ability of MirCompare to select plant miRNAs with functional homologies with mammalian ones has been experimentally confirmed by evaluating the ability of mol-miR168a to downregulate the protein expression of SIRT1, when its mimic is transfected into human hepatoma cell line G2 (HEPG2) cells. This tool is implemented into a user-friendly web interface, and the access is free to public through the website http://160.80.35.140/MirCompare.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Biology, University of Rome "Tor Vergata ," Rome, Italy .|2 Mir-Nat s.r.l. , Rome, Italy .
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pirrò
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Biology, University of Rome "Tor Vergata ," Rome, Italy .
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Minutolo
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Biology, University of Rome "Tor Vergata ," Rome, Italy .|2 Mir-Nat s.r.l. , Rome, Italy .
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Galgani
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Biology, University of Rome "Tor Vergata ," Rome, Italy .
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Potestà
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Biology, University of Rome "Tor Vergata ," Rome, Italy .|2 Mir-Nat s.r.l. , Rome, Italy .
authors.forename: Vittorio
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Colizzi
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Biology, University of Rome "Tor Vergata ," Rome, Italy .
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Montesano
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D056945:Hep G2 Cells; D006801:Humans; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*; D029588:Moringa oleifera / Q000235:genetics*; D025941:Protein Interaction Mapping; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D056564:Sirtuin 1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012984:Software
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs; D012333:RNA, Messenger; C447939:SIRT1 protein, human; D056564:Sirtuin 1
keywords: computational molecular biology; microRNA; sequence analysis