Functional shifts in insect microRNA evolutionCitation formats

TY - JOUR

T1 - Functional shifts in insect microRNA evolution

AU - Marco, Antonio

AU - Hui, Jerome H L

AU - Ronshaugen, Matthew

AU - Griffiths-Jones, Sam

PY - 2010

Y1 - 2010

N2 - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short endogenous RNA molecules that regulate gene expression at the posttranscriptional level and have been shown to play critical roles during animal development. The identification and comparison of miRNAs in metazoan species are therefore paramount for our understanding of the evolution of body plans. We have characterized 203 miRNAs from the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum by deep sequencing of small RNA libraries. We can conclude, from a single study, that the Tribolium miRNA set is at least 15% larger than that in the model insect Drosophila melanogaster (despite tens of highthroughput sequencing experiments in the latter). The rate of birth and death of miRNAs is high in insects. Only one-third of the Tribolium miRNA sequences are conserved in D. melanogaster, and at least 18 Tribolium miRNAs are conserved in vertebrates but lost in Drosophila. More than one-fifth of miRNAs that are conserved between Tribolium and Drosophila exhibit changes in the transcription, genomic organization, and processing patterns that lead to predicted functional shifts. For example, 13% of conserved miRNAs exhibit seed shifting, and we describe arm-switching events in 11% of orthologous pairs. These shifts fundamentally change the predicted targets and therefore function of orthologous miRNAs. In general, Tribolium miRNAs are more representative of the insect ancestor than Drosophila miRNAs and are more conserved in vertebrates. © The Author(s) 2010.

AB - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short endogenous RNA molecules that regulate gene expression at the posttranscriptional level and have been shown to play critical roles during animal development. The identification and comparison of miRNAs in metazoan species are therefore paramount for our understanding of the evolution of body plans. We have characterized 203 miRNAs from the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum by deep sequencing of small RNA libraries. We can conclude, from a single study, that the Tribolium miRNA set is at least 15% larger than that in the model insect Drosophila melanogaster (despite tens of highthroughput sequencing experiments in the latter). The rate of birth and death of miRNAs is high in insects. Only one-third of the Tribolium miRNA sequences are conserved in D. melanogaster, and at least 18 Tribolium miRNAs are conserved in vertebrates but lost in Drosophila. More than one-fifth of miRNAs that are conserved between Tribolium and Drosophila exhibit changes in the transcription, genomic organization, and processing patterns that lead to predicted functional shifts. For example, 13% of conserved miRNAs exhibit seed shifting, and we describe arm-switching events in 11% of orthologous pairs. These shifts fundamentally change the predicted targets and therefore function of orthologous miRNAs. In general, Tribolium miRNAs are more representative of the insect ancestor than Drosophila miRNAs and are more conserved in vertebrates. © The Author(s) 2010.

KW - Arm switching

KW - Deep sequencing

KW - Embryonic development

KW - miRNAs

KW - Tribolium

U2 - 10.1093/gbe/evq053

DO - 10.1093/gbe/evq053

M3 - Article

C2 - 20817720

VL - 2

SP - 686

EP - 696

JO - Genome biology and evolution

JF - Genome biology and evolution

SN - 1759-6653

IS - 1

ER -