The marine medaka (Oryzias melastigma) has been increasingly used as a fish model for detecting environmental stresses and chemical contaminants in the marine environment. Recent mammalian studies have shown that environmental stresses can alter the expression profiles of microRNAs (miRNAs), leading to transgenerational effects. Here, we use high-throughput Illumina RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) for...

Recent discoveries in genetics show that gene expression in igher eukaryotes is regulated in part by small non-coding RNA olecules named microRNAs (miRNAs) (Ambros, 2004; Bartel, 004; Lim et al., 2003). In plants, miRNAs regulate protein xpression by binding to the coding region of the corresponding essenger RNA (mRNA). Plant miRNAs exhibit near-perfect comlementarity with the target sites. In ...

microRNAs act in a prevalent and conserved post-transcriptional gene regulatory mechanism that impacts development, homeostasis and disease, yet biological functions for the vast majority of miRNAs remain unknown. Given the power of invertebrate genetics to promote rapid evaluation of miRNA function, recently expanded miRNA identifications (miRBase 10.1), and the importance of assessing potenti...

Transcriptional cis-regulatory control regions frequently are found within non-coding DNA segments conserved across multi-species gene orthologs. Adopting a systematic gene-centric pipeline approach, we report here the development of a web-accessible database resource--GenomeTraFac (http://genometrafac.cchmc.org)--that allows genome-wide detection and characterization of compositionally similar...

Despite numerous studies, the causes of both development and progression of keratoconus remain elusive. Previous studies of this disorder focused mainly on one or two genetic factors only. However, in the analysis of such complex diseases all potential factors should be taken into consideration. The purpose of this study was a comprehensive analysis of known keratoconus loci to uncover genetic ...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that regulate target gene expression and hence play important roles in metabolic pathways. Recent studies have evidenced the interrelation of miRNAs with cell proliferation, differentiation, development, and diseases. Since they are involved in gene regulation, they are intrinsically related to metabolic pathways. This leads to questions that are par...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in various biological processes by suppressing gene expression. A recent work has indicated that host miRNAs are also capable of regulating viral gene expression by targeting the virus genomes. To investigate regulatory relationships between host miRNAs and related viruses, we present a novel database, namely ViTa, to curate the known virus miRNA genes and the kn...

Transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV; Coronaviridae family) causes huge economic losses to the swine industry. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play a regulatory role in viral infection and may be involved in the mammalian immune response. Here, we report a comprehensive analysis of host miRNA expression in TGEV-infected swine testis (ST) cells. Deep sequencing generated 3,704,353 and 2,763,665 reads fr...

Panicle type has a direct bearing on rice yield. Here, we characterized a rice clustered-spikelet mutant, sped1-D, with shortened pedicels and/or secondary branches, which exhibits decreased pollen fertility. We cloned sped1-D and found that it encodes a pentatricopeptide repeat protein. We investigated the global expression profiles of wild-type, 9311, and sped1-D plants using Illumina RNA seq...

BACKGROUND MicroRNAs are small non-coding nucleotide sequences that regulate gene expression. These structures are fundamental to several biological processes, including cell proliferation, development, differentiation and apoptosis. Identifying the expression profile of microRNAs in healthy human gastric antrum mucosa may help elucidate the miRNA regulatory mechanisms of the human stomach. M...