starBase: a database for exploring microRNA-mRNA interaction maps from Argonaute CLIP-Seq and Degradome-Seq data

Nucleic Acids Res. 2011 Jan;39(Database issue):D202-9. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkq1056. Epub 2010 Oct 30.

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) represent an important class of small non-coding RNAs (sRNAs) that regulate gene expression by targeting messenger RNAs. However, assigning miRNAs to their regulatory target genes remains technically challenging. Recently, high-throughput CLIP-Seq and degradome sequencing (Degradome-Seq) methods have been applied to identify the sites of Argonaute interaction and miRNA cleavage sites, respectively. In this study, we introduce a novel database, starBase (sRNA target Base), which we have developed to facilitate the comprehensive exploration of miRNA-target interaction maps from CLIP-Seq and Degradome-Seq data. The current version includes high-throughput sequencing data generated from 21 CLIP-Seq and 10 Degradome-Seq experiments from six organisms. By analyzing millions of mapped CLIP-Seq and Degradome-Seq reads, we identified ∼1 million Ago-binding clusters and ∼2 million cleaved target clusters in animals and plants, respectively. Analyses of these clusters, and of target sites predicted by 6 miRNA target prediction programs, resulted in our identification of approximately 400,000 and approximately 66,000 miRNA-target regulatory relationships from CLIP-Seq and Degradome-Seq data, respectively. Furthermore, two web servers were provided to discover novel miRNA target sites from CLIP-Seq and Degradome-Seq data. Our web implementation supports diverse query types and exploration of common targets, gene ontologies and pathways. The starBase is available at http://starbase.sysu.edu.cn/.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Binding Sites
  • Databases, Nucleic Acid*
  • Gene Expression Regulation
  • Genomics
  • Humans
  • Internet
  • Mice
  • MicroRNAs / chemistry*
  • MicroRNAs / metabolism
  • RNA, Messenger / chemistry*
  • RNA, Messenger / metabolism
  • RNA-Binding Proteins / metabolism
  • Sequence Analysis, RNA
  • Software
  • User-Computer Interface

Substances

  • MicroRNAs
  • RNA, Messenger
  • RNA-Binding Proteins