Abstract
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a group of small, approximately 21 nt long, riboregulators inhibiting gene expression at a post-transcriptional level. Their most distinctive structural feature is the foldback hairpin of their precursor pre-miRNAs. Even though each pre-miRNA deposited in miRBase has its secondary structure already predicted, little is known about the patterns of structural conservation among pre-miRNAs. We address this issue by clustering the human pre-miRNA sequences based on pairwise, sequence and secondary structure alignment using FOLDALIGN, followed by global multiple alignment of obtained clusters by WAR. As a result, the common secondary structure was successfully determined for four FOLDALIGN clusters: the RF00027 structural family of the Rfam database and three clusters with previously undescribed consensus structures. Availability: http://genome.ku.dk/resources/mirclust
Originalsprog | Engelsk |
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Tidsskrift | Bioinformatics |
Vol/bind | 25 |
Udgave nummer | 3 |
Sider (fra-til) | 291-294 |
Antal sider | 4 |
ISSN | 1367-4803 |
DOI | |
Status | Udgivet - 2009 |