Cross-mapping events in miRNAs reveal potential miRNA-mimics and evolutionary implications

PLoS One. 2011;6(5):e20517. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0020517. Epub 2011 May 26.

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have important roles in various biological processes. miRNA cross-mapping is a prevalent phenomenon where miRNA sequence originating from one genomic region is mapped to another location. To have a better understanding of this phenomenon in the human genome, we performed a detailed analysis in this paper using public miRNA high-throughput sequencing data and all known human miRNAs. We observed widespread cross-mapping events between miRNA precursors (pre-miRNAs), other non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) and the opposite strands of pre-miRNAs by analyzing the high-throughput sequencing data. Computational analysis on all known human miRNAs also confirmed that many of them could be involved in cross-mapping events. The processing or decay of both ncRNAs and pre-miRNA opposite strand transcripts may contribute to miRNA enrichment, although some might be miRNA-mimics due to miRNA mis-annotation. Comparing to canonical miRNAs, miRNAs involved in cross-mapping events between pre-miRNAs and other ncRNAs normally had shorter lengths (17-19 nt), lower prediction scores and were classified as pseudo miRNA precursors. Notably, 4.9% of all human miRNAs could be accurately mapped to the opposite strands of pre-miRNAs, which showed that both strands of the same genomic region had the potential to produce mature miRNAs and simultaneously implied some potential miRNA precursors. We proposed that the cross-mapping events are more complex than we previously thought. Sequence similarity between other ncRNAs and pre-miRNAs and the specific stem-loop structures of pre-miRNAs may provide evolutionary implications.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Base Sequence
  • Evolution, Molecular*
  • Genetic Variation
  • High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing / methods*
  • Humans
  • MicroRNAs / genetics*
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • RNA Precursors / genetics
  • RNA, Untranslated / genetics

Substances

  • MicroRNAs
  • RNA Precursors
  • RNA, Untranslated