MicroRNAs （miRNAs） are small endogenous non-coding RNAs of about 22 nt in length that take crucial roles in many biological pro cesses. These short RNAs regulate the expression of mRNAs by binding to their 3＇-UTRs ...MicroRNAs （miRNAs） are small endogenous non-coding RNAs of about 22 nt in length that take crucial roles in many biological pro cesses. These short RNAs regulate the expression of mRNAs by binding to their 3＇-UTRs or by translational repression. Many of the current studies focus on how mature miRNAs regulate mRNAs, however, very limited knowledge is available regarding their transcrip- tional loci. It is known that primary miRNAs （pri-miRs） are first transcribed from the DNA, followed by the formation of precursor miRNAs （pre-miRs） by endonuclease activity, which finally produces the mature miRNAs. Till date, many of the pre-miRs and mature miRNAs have been experimentally verified. But unfortunately, identification of the loci of pri-miRs, promoters and associated transcrip- tion start sites （TSSs） are still in progress. TSSs of only about 40% of the known mature miRNAs in human have been reported. This information, albeit limited, may be useful for further study of the regulation of miRNAs. In this paper, we provide a novel database of validated miRNA TSSs, miRT, by collecting data from several experimental studies that validate miRNA TSSs and are available for full download. We present miRT as a web server and it is also possible to convert the TSS loci between different genome built, miRT might be a valuable resource for advanced research on miRNA regulation, which is freely accessible at： http：//www.isical.ac.in/~bioinfo_miu/ miRT/miRT.php.展开更多
基金the financial support from the Swarnajayanti Fellowship scheme of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India (Grant No. DST/SJF/ET-02/2006-07)
文摘MicroRNAs （miRNAs） are small endogenous non-coding RNAs of about 22 nt in length that take crucial roles in many biological pro cesses. These short RNAs regulate the expression of mRNAs by binding to their 3＇-UTRs or by translational repression. Many of the current studies focus on how mature miRNAs regulate mRNAs, however, very limited knowledge is available regarding their transcrip- tional loci. It is known that primary miRNAs （pri-miRs） are first transcribed from the DNA, followed by the formation of precursor miRNAs （pre-miRs） by endonuclease activity, which finally produces the mature miRNAs. Till date, many of the pre-miRs and mature miRNAs have been experimentally verified. But unfortunately, identification of the loci of pri-miRs, promoters and associated transcrip- tion start sites （TSSs） are still in progress. TSSs of only about 40% of the known mature miRNAs in human have been reported. This information, albeit limited, may be useful for further study of the regulation of miRNAs. In this paper, we provide a novel database of validated miRNA TSSs, miRT, by collecting data from several experimental studies that validate miRNA TSSs and are available for full download. We present miRT as a web server and it is also possible to convert the TSS loci between different genome built, miRT might be a valuable resource for advanced research on miRNA regulation, which is freely accessible at： http：//www.isical.ac.in/~bioinfo_miu/ miRT/miRT.php.
