Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
Genome Biol Evol. 2012;4(4):552-64. doi: 10.1093/gbe/evs033. Epub 2012 Mar 27.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small RNA molecules involved in the regulation of mammalian gene expression. Together with other transcription regulators, miRNAs modulate the expression of genes and thereby potentially contribute to tissue and species diversity. To identify miRNAs that are differentially expressed between tissues and/or species, and the genes regulated by these, we have quantified expression of miRNAs and messenger RNAs in five tissues from multiple human, chimpanzee, and rhesus macaque individuals using high-throughput sequencing. The breadth of this tissue and species data allows us to show that downregulation of target genes by miRNAs is more pronounced between tissues than between species and that downregulation is more pronounced for genes with fewer binding sites for expressed miRNAs. Intriguingly, we find that tissue- and species-specific miRNAs target transcription factor genes (TFs) significantly more often than expected. Through their regulatory effect on transcription factors, miRNAs may therefore exert an indirect influence on a larger proportion of genes than previously thought.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) 是参与哺乳动物基因表达调控的小 RNA 分子。miRNAs 与其他转录调控因子一起调节基因的表达，从而可能为组织和物种多样性做出贡献。为了鉴定在组织和/或物种之间表达差异的 miRNAs 以及这些 miRNAs 调控的基因，我们使用高通量测序技术在来自多个人类、黑猩猩和恒河猴个体的五个组织中定量了 miRNAs 和信使 RNA 的表达。这些组织和物种数据的广度使我们能够表明，miRNAs 对靶基因的下调在组织之间比在物种之间更为明显，并且对于表达 miRNA 结合位点较少的基因下调更为明显。有趣的是，我们发现组织和物种特异性 miRNAs 靶向转录因子基因 (TFs) 的频率明显高于预期。因此，miRNAs 通过对转录因子的调节作用，可能对比以前认为的更多比例的基因产生间接影响。
