Immune Disease Institute and Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2010 Oct;17(10):1169-74. doi: 10.1038/nsmb.1921.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) suppress gene expression by inhibiting translation, promoting mRNA decay or both. Each miRNA may regulate hundreds of genes to control the cell's response to developmental and other environmental cues. The best way to understand the function of a miRNA is to identify the genes that it regulates. Target gene identification is challenging because miRNAs bind to their target mRNAs by partial complementarity over a short sequence, suppression of an individual target gene is often small, and the rules of targeting are not completely understood. Here we review computational and experimental approaches to the identification of miRNA-regulated genes. The examination of changes in gene expression that occur when miRNA expression is altered and biochemical isolation of miRNA-associated transcripts complement target prediction algorithms. Bioinformatic analysis of over-represented pathways and nodes in protein-DNA interactomes formed from experimental candidate miRNA gene target lists can focus attention on biologically significant target genes.
微小 RNA（miRNAs）通过抑制翻译、促进 mRNA 降解或两者兼而有之来抑制基因表达。每个 miRNA 可能调节数百个基因，以控制细胞对发育和其他环境线索的反应。了解 miRNA 功能的最佳方法是确定它调节的基因。靶基因鉴定具有挑战性，因为 miRNA 通过短序列上的部分互补性与其靶 mRNAs 结合，对单个靶基因的抑制通常很小，并且靶向规则尚未完全了解。在这里，我们回顾了用于鉴定 miRNA 调节基因的计算和实验方法。当 miRNA 表达发生变化时，检查基因表达的变化，以及通过生化方法分离 miRNA 相关转录本来补充靶预测算法。从实验候选 miRNA 基因靶标列表形成的蛋白质-DNA 相互作用组中过度表达途径和节点的生物信息学分析可以将注意力集中在具有生物学意义的靶基因上。
