Lu Yi-Chien, Smielewska Magda, Palakodeti Dasaradhi, Lovci Michael T, Aigner Stefan, Yeo Gene W, Graveley Brenton R
Department of Genetics and Developmental Biology, University of Connecticut Stem Cell Institute, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut 06030-3301, USA.
RNA. 2009 Aug;15(8):1483-91. doi: 10.1261/rna.1702009. Epub 2009 Jun 24.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in directing the differentiation of cells down a variety of cell lineage pathways. The planarian Schmidtea mediterranea can regenerate all lost body tissue after amputation due to a population of pluripotent somatic stem cells called neoblasts, and is therefore an excellent model organism to study the roles of miRNAs in stem cell function. Here, we use a combination of deep sequencing and bioinformatics to discover 66 new miRNAs in S. mediterranea. We also identify 21 miRNAs that are specifically expressed in either sexual or asexual animals. Finally, we identified five miRNAs whose expression is sensitive to gamma-irradiation, suggesting they are expressed in neoblasts or early neoblast progeny. Together, these results increase the known repertoire of S. mediterranea miRNAs and identify numerous regulated miRNAs that may play important roles in regeneration, homeostasis, neoblast function, and reproduction.
微小RNA（miRNA）在引导细胞沿着多种细胞谱系途径分化过程中发挥着重要作用。涡虫纲的地中海涡虫（Schmidtea mediterranea）在截肢后能够凭借一群被称为新生源细胞的多能性体细胞干细胞再生所有缺失的身体组织，因此它是研究miRNA在干细胞功能中作用的绝佳模式生物。在此，我们结合深度测序和生物信息学方法，在地中海涡虫中发现了66种新的miRNA。我们还鉴定出21种在有性或无性动物中特异性表达的miRNA。最后，我们确定了5种miRNA，其表达对γ射线辐射敏感，这表明它们在新生源细胞或早期新生源细胞后代中表达。这些结果共同增加了地中海涡虫已知的miRNA库，并鉴定出众多可能在再生、体内平衡、新生源细胞功能和繁殖中发挥重要作用的受调控miRNA。
