14. Mapping, Curation, and Evolutionary Conservation of Macaque miRNA

Abstract


 MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small regulatory RNA molecules that switch off gene expression. Their main function is to degrade or stop the translation of target messenger RNAs through binding to their 3’ untranslated regions. miRNAs are excellent disease biomarkers due to their cell-type specificity, abundance, and stability. However, the sequences and locations of miRNAs within the human genome are a source of confusion in miRNA diagnostics. Here, I am defining the genomic locations and examining the specificity of miRNA expression in the Rhesus macaque tissues, using evolutionary conservation to guide our understanding of miRNA biology. First, I mapped the human miRNA precursor sequences in the macaque genome through the UCSC Genome Browser. Next, I expect to assess the validity of a miRNA by aligning macaque small RNA sequences against their corresponding precursor sequences. Lastly, I will calculate miRNA tissue specificity using existing data generated from 65 tissues obtained during a macaque necropsy. Through this approach, I expect to generate miRNA expression profiles using matching human miRNA expression profiles. These profiles were preprocessed through data normalization, outlier removal, and filtering of low expressed miRNAs. Feature selection and tissue specificity measures will be used to identify tissue-specific miRNA and an atlas of miRNA expression will be generated. miRNA conservation between humans and macaques will be assessed and macaque segments that did not align with the human genome will be investigated separately as they may be new miRNA.