2009/06/29
Researchers from CIC bioGUNE develop a bioinformatics tool for interpreting the results of microRNA sequencing.
A team of researchers from the Functional Genomic Unit of CIC bioGUNE, led by Ana María Aransay, have developed a bioinformatics tool capable of analysing and interpreting the results of microRNA (or small, non-coding RNA) sequencing.
The tool is a free-access, free-of-charge web tool called "miRanalyzer" (http://web.bioinformatics.cicbiogune.es/microRNA/miRanalyser.php), and has had a major impact since its publication in May in the journal Nucleic Acids Research. "We thought it was going to be a good tool, but we didn't think it would prove quite so successful" says Aransay.
miRNAs are small molecules of RNA (between 19 and 25 nucleotides), which are not translated into proteins but rather are believed to have regulatory functions. miRNAs are expressed in a wide variety of different organisms, from plants to worms. They are also found in humans. Many miRNAs have remained well conserved throughout evolution, and many components of the machinery required for the generation of miRNAs have been found in Archaea and Eubacteria, thus revealing their very ancient origins. Some miRNAs counts in humans have identified up to 800 different types, which suggests that together, miRNAs may account for around 3% of the human genome.
Based on their description, many different technologies have been developed to characterise miRNA populations in pharmagenomic studies or animal models (e.g. mice). These high-performance techniques aim to describe which miRNA sequences are contained in a tissue or organ, and how many are present in each.
To date, researchers not lucky enough to have the support of bioinformatics teams were obliged to subcontract the analysis of mass miRNA sequencing data out to external companies. Thanks to the publication of "miRanalyzer", this analysis can now be carried out remotely and free of charge from any laboratory. "The instructions for using the web tool are easy to follow, as are the guidelines for preparing the data files to be analysed. It is a user-friendly tool for those of us who are not bioinformatics specialists," states Ana María Aransay.
The description of the presence of certain miRNA molecules and their differential quantification are crucial to understanding certain cellular events which, to date, remain unexplained.