College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Agricultural Molecular Biology, Yangling, China.
Int J Biol Sci. 2011 Feb 16;7(2):180-92. doi: 10.7150/ijbs.7.180.
MicroRNAs are regulators in regulation of broad range of phenotypes. The purple urchin, Strongylocentrotus nudus, is one of the most important marine economic animals that widely distributed in the cold seas along the coasts of eastern pacific area. To date, only 45 microRNAs have been identified in a related species, Strongylocentrotus purpurtus, and there is no report on S. nudus microRNAs. Herein, solexa sequencing technology was used to high throughput sequencing analysis of microRNAs in small RNA library isolated from five tissues of S. nudus. Totally, 8,966,865 reads were yielded, 131,015 of which were related to 415 unique microRNAs including 345 deuterostoma conserved and 70 urchin specific microRNAs, as well as 5 microRNA* sequences. The miRNA features including length distribution, end variations and genomic locations were characterized. Annotation of targets revealed a broad range of biological processes and signal transduction pathways that regulated by urchin miRNAs, of which signal transduction mechanisms was the subgroup containing the maximum targets. In addition, the expression of 100 miRNAs in female gonad was confirmed using microRNA microarray analysis. This study provides a first large scale cloning and characterization of S.nudus miRNAs and their potential targets, providing the foundation for further characterization for their role in the regulation of diversity of physiological processes.
微 RNA 是调节广泛表型的调节因子。紫色海胆，Strongylocentrotus nudus，是一种最重要的海洋经济动物之一，广泛分布于沿太平洋东部海岸的寒冷海域。迄今为止，仅在相关物种 Strongylocentrotus purpurtus 中鉴定出了 45 个 microRNAs，而关于 S. nudus microRNAs 的报道尚不多见。在此，我们使用高通量测序技术对从小 RNA 文库中分离出的 S. nudus 五个组织的 microRNAs 进行 solexa 测序分析。总共产生了 8966855 个读数，其中 131015 个与 415 个独特的 microRNAs 相关，包括 345 个后口动物保守和 70 个海胆特异性 microRNAs，以及 5 个 microRNA*序列。miRNA 的特征包括长度分布、末端变化和基因组位置。对靶标的注释揭示了广泛的生物学过程和信号转导途径，这些途径受海胆 microRNAs 的调节，其中信号转导机制是包含最大靶标的亚组。此外，使用 microRNA 微阵列分析证实了 100 个 miRNA 在雌性性腺中的表达。本研究首次大规模克隆和鉴定了 S.nudus miRNAs 及其潜在靶标，为进一步研究其在调节生理过程多样性中的作用提供了基础。
