Computational Analyses for Identification Novel MicroRNAs from Cattle and Sheep

Document Type : Research Articles

Authors

Balal Sadeghi

Mohammadreza Nassiri

Ali Masoudi-Nejad

Mojtaba Tahmoorespour

Hesam Dehghani

Hamed Ahmadi

https://doi.org/10.22067/jcmr.v4i2.16193

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNA) are a class of noncoding and regulatory RNA molecules about 22 nucleotides in
length. MicroRNAs regulate gene expression by an RNA interfering pathway through cleavage or inhibition of
the translation of target mRNA. Many miRNAs have been reported for their important roles in developmental
processes in various animals, but there is limited information about cattle and sheep miRNAs. The comparative
genomics approach due to their conserved nature is a good source for the miRNAs discovery. Cattle and sheep
are ideal model organisms for biological and comparative genomics studies. In our study, a computational
method based on expressed sequence tag (EST) analysis was used for detection of cattle and sheep miRNAs. In
cattle, 25 miRNA candidates found by homology searching frequently clustered at certain chromosomes and
28 miRNAs in sheep had been detected. Our results show that the cattle and sheep miRNA database can be
providing useful information for investigating biological functions of miRNAs in cattle and sheep.
Furthermore, the bioinformatics approach is a good manner for studying these functions.

Keywords

MicroRNAs

Comparative genomics

Homology searching

Sheep

cattle

20.1001.1.20089147.2012.4.2.3.5

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