Genome-wide identification of microRNA targets in the neglected disease pathogens of the genus Echinococcus

Publication date: Available online 3 April 2017 Source:Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology Author(s): Natalia Macchiaroli, Lucas Maldonado, Magdalena Zarowiecki, Marcela Cucher, Maria Ines Gismondi, Laura Kamenetzky, Mara Cecilia Rosenzvit MicroRNAs (miRNAs), a class of small non-coding RNAs, are key regulators of gene expression at post-transcriptional level and play essential roles in biological processes such as development. MiRNAs silence target mRNAs by binding to complementary sequences in the 3’untranslated regions (3′UTRs). The parasitic helminths of the genus Echinococcus are the causative agents of echinococcosis, a zoonotic neglected disease. In previous work, we performed a comprehensive identification and characterization of Echinococcus miRNAs. However, current knowledge about their targets is limited. Since target prediction algorithms rely on complementarity between 3′UTRs and miRNA sequences, a major limitation is the lack of accurate sequence information of 3′UTR for most species including parasitic helminths. We performed RNA-seq and developed a pipeline that integrates the transcriptomic data with available genomic data of this parasite in order to identify 3′UTRs of E. canadensis. The high confidence set of 3′UTRs obtained allowed the prediction of miRNA targets in Echinococcus through a bioinformatic approach. We performed for the first time a comparative analysis of miRNA targets in Echinococcus and Taenia. We found that many evo...
Source: Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology - Category: Parasitology Source Type: research