Expression profiling of microRNAs by deep sequencing

Brief Bioinform. 2009 Sep;10(5):490-7. doi: 10.1093/bib/bbp019. Epub 2009 Mar 30.

Abstract

MicroRNAs are short non-coding RNAs that regulate the stability and translation of mRNAs. Profiling experiments, using microarray or deep sequencing technology, have identified microRNAs that are preferentially expressed in certain tissues, specific stages of development, or disease states such as cancer. Deep sequencing utilizes massively parallel sequencing, generating millions of small RNA sequence reads from a given sample. Profiling of microRNAs by deep sequencing measures absolute abundance and allows for the discovery of novel microRNAs that have eluded previous cloning and standard sequencing efforts. Public databases provide in silico predictions of microRNA gene targets by various algorithms. To better determine which of these predictions represent true positives, microRNA expression data can be integrated with gene expression data to identify putative microRNA:mRNA functional pairs. Here we discuss tools and methodologies for the analysis of microRNA expression data from deep sequencing.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Gene Expression Profiling / methods*
  • Humans
  • MicroRNAs / chemistry
  • MicroRNAs / genetics*
  • Nucleic Acid Conformation
  • Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / methods
  • Sequence Analysis, RNA / methods*

Substances

  • MicroRNAs