RumimiR: a detailed microRNA database focused on ruminant species

The ever-increasing use of next-generation sequencing technologies to explore the genome has generated large quantities of data in recent years. Numerous publications have described several thousand sequences of microRNAs, all species included. A new database (RumimiR) has been created from the literature to provide a detailed description of microRNAs for three ruminant species: cattle, goats and sheep. To date, 2887, 2733 and 5095 unique microRNAs from bovine, caprine and ovine species, respectively, are included. In addition to the most recent reference genomic position and sequence of each microRNA, this database contains details about the animals, tissue origins and experimental conditions mentioned in the publications. Identity to human or mouse microRNA is also indicated. The RumimiR database allows data filtering by selecting microRNAs on the basis of defined criteria such as animal status or tissue origin. For ruminant studies, RumimiR supplements the widely used miRBase database, by using complementary criteria to allow browsing and filtering, and integrates all newly described published sequences. The principal goal of this database is to provide easy access to all the ruminant microRNAs described in the literature.