In Silico Investigation of Conserved miRNAs and Their Targets From the Expressed Sequence Tags in Neospora Caninum Genome

Moumita Das; Mahmudul Hasan; Sharmin Akter; Sawrab Roy; Binayok Sharma; Md Shahidur Rahman Chowdhury; Md Irtija Ahsan; Rubaiat Nazneen Akhand; Md Bashir Uddin; Syed Sayeem Uddin Ahmed

doi:10.1177/11779322211046729

In Silico Investigation of Conserved miRNAs and Their Targets From the Expressed Sequence Tags in Neospora Caninum Genome

Bioinform Biol Insights. 2021 Dec 6:15:11779322211046729. doi: 10.1177/11779322211046729. eCollection 2021.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Sylhet Agricultural University, Sylhet, Bangladesh.
² Department of Pharmaceuticals and Industrial Biotechnology, Sylhet Agricultural University, Sylhet, Bangladesh.
³ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Sylhet Agricultural University, Sylhet, Bangladesh.
⁴ Department of Medicine, Sylhet Agricultural University, Sylhet, Bangladesh.
⁵ Department of Biochemistry and Chemistry, Sylhet Agricultural University, Sylhet, Bangladesh.

Abstract

Neospora caninum is a protozoan parasite, the etiologic agent of Neosporosis-a common cause of abortion in cattle worldwide. Herd level prevalence of Neosporosis could be as high as 90%. However, there is no approved treatment and vaccines available for Neosporosis. MicroRNA (miRNA) based prophylaxis and therapeutics could be options for Neosporosis in cattle and other animals. The current study aimed to investigate the genome of Neospora caninum to identify and characterize the conserved miRNAs through Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) dependent homology search. A total of 1,041 mature miRNAs of reference organisms were employed against 336 non-redundant ESTs available in the genome of Neospora caninum. The study predicted one putative miRNA "nca-miR-9388-5p" of 19 nucleotides with MFEI value -1.51 kcal/mol and (A + U) content% 72.94% corresponding with its pre-miRNA. A comprehensive search for specific gene targets was performed and discovered 16 potential genes associated with different protozoal physiological functions. Significantly, the gene "Protein phosphatase" was found responsible for the virulence of Neospora caninum. The other genes were accounted for gene expression, vesicular transport, cell signaling, cell proliferation, DNA repair mechanism, and different developmental stages of the protozoon. Therefore, this study finding will provide pivotal information to future aspirants upon Bovine Neosporosis. It will also serve as the baseline information for further studies of the bioinformatics approach to identify other protozoal miRNAs.

Keywords: ESTs; Neospora caninum; miRNA; neosporosis; virulence.