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Systematic analysis of human microRNA divergence based on evolutionary emergence
Author(s) -
Wang Qiang-Hu,
Zhou Meng,
Sun Jie,
Ning Shang-Wei,
Li Yan,
Chen Li,
Zheng Yan,
Li Xiang,
Lv Sa-li,
Li Xia
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/j.febslet.2010.11.053
Subject(s) - microrna , biology , gene , lineage (genetic) , evolutionary biology , computational biology , homology (biology) , genetics
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in post‐transcriptional gene expression control. To gain new insight into human miRNAs, we performed comprehensive sequence‐based homology search for known human miRNAs to study the evolutionary distribution of human miRNAs. Furthermore, we carried out a series of studies to compare various features for different lineage‐specific human miRNAs. Our results showed that major expansions of human miRNA genes coincide with the advent of vertebrates, mammals and primates. Further system‐level analysis revealed significant differences in human miRNAs that arose from different evolutionary time points for a number of characteristics, implicating genetic and functional diversification for different human miRNAs during evolution. Our finds provide more useful knowledge for further exploring origins and evolution of human miRNA genes.