The Bioinformatics Centre, Department of biology, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark.
BMC Bioinformatics. 2010 Jan 14;11:29. doi: 10.1186/1471-2105-11-29.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous small RNAs that play a key role in post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression in animals and plants. The number of known miRNAs has increased rapidly over the years. The current release (version 14.0) of miRBase, the central online repository for miRNA annotation, comprises over 10.000 miRNA precursors from 115 different species. Furthermore, a large number of decentralized online resources are now available, each contributing with important miRNA annotation and information.
We have developed a software framework, designated here as miRMaid, with the goal of integrating miRNA data resources in a uniform web service interface that can be accessed and queried by researchers and, most importantly, by computers. miRMaid is built around data from miRBase and is designed to follow the official miRBase data releases. It exposes miRBase data as inter-connected web services. Third-party miRNA data resources can be modularly integrated as miRMaid plugins or they can loosely couple with miRMaid as individual entities in the World Wide Web. miRMaid is available as a public web service but is also easily installed as a local application. The software framework is freely available under the LGPL open source license for academic and commercial use.
miRMaid is an intuitive and modular software platform designed to unify miRBase and independent miRNA data resources. It enables miRNA researchers to computationally address complex questions involving the multitude of miRNA data resources. Furthermore, miRMaid constitutes a basic framework for further programming in which microRNA-interested bioinformaticians can readily develop their own tools and data sources.
microRNAs（miRNAs）是内源性的小 RNA，在动植物中转录后基因表达的调控中起着关键作用。已知的 miRNAs 数量近年来迅速增加。miRBase 是 miRNA 注释的中央在线存储库，目前的版本（版本 14.0）包含来自 115 个不同物种的超过 10000 个 miRNA 前体。此外，现在有大量分散的在线资源可用，每个资源都提供了重要的 miRNA 注释和信息。
我们开发了一个软件框架，称为 miRMaid，旨在将 miRNA 数据资源集成到一个统一的 Web 服务接口中，研究人员可以通过该接口访问和查询 miRNA 数据，最重要的是，计算机也可以访问和查询。miRMaid 基于 miRBase 的数据构建，旨在遵循官方的 miRBase 数据发布。它将 miRBase 数据暴露为相互连接的 Web 服务。第三方 miRNA 数据资源可以作为 miRMaid 插件进行模块化集成，也可以作为独立实体松散耦合到万维网中的 miRMaid。miRMaid 既可以作为公共 Web 服务使用，也可以轻松地作为本地应用程序安装。该软件框架可根据 LGPL 开源许可证免费用于学术和商业用途。
miRMaid 是一个直观的模块化软件平台，旨在统一 miRBase 和独立的 miRNA 数据资源。它使 miRNA 研究人员能够在计算上解决涉及众多 miRNA 数据资源的复杂问题。此外，miRMaid 构成了进一步编程的基础框架，其中对 microRNA 感兴趣的生物信息学家可以轻松地开发自己的工具和数据源。
