MiRAuto: an automated user-friendly microRNA prediction tool utilizing plant small RNA sequencing data

Mol Cells. 2013 Apr;35(4):342-7. doi: 10.1007/s10059-013-0019-8. Epub 2013 Apr 15.

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small RNAs that post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression in animals and plants. The recent rapid advancement in miRNA biology, including high-throughput sequencing of small RNA libraries, inspired the development of a bioinformatics software, miRAuto, which predicts putative miRNAs in model plant genomes computationally. Furthermore, miRAuto enables users to identify miRNAs in non-model plant species whose genomes have yet to be fully sequenced. miRAuto analyzes the expression of the 5'-end position of mapped small RNAs in reference sequences to prevent the possibility of mRNA fragments being included as candidate miRNAs. We validated the utility of miRAuto on a small RNA dataset, and the results were compared to other publicly available miRNA prediction programs. In conclusion, miRAuto is a fully automated user-friendly tool for predicting miRNAs from small RNA sequencing data in both model and non-model plant species. miRAuto is available at http://nature.snu.ac.kr/software/miRAuto.htm.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Gene Expression Profiling / methods
  • Gene Library
  • Genome, Plant*
  • MicroRNAs / genetics*
  • MicroRNAs / metabolism
  • RNA, Plant / genetics*
  • RNA, Plant / metabolism
  • Sequence Analysis, RNA / methods*

Substances

  • MicroRNAs
  • RNA, Plant