Title

Authors

Affiliation

Department of Biological Sciences, BITS, Pilani – K K Birla Goa Campus, Zuarinagar, Goa- 403726

Email

sumit@goa.bits-pilani.ac.in; *Corresponding author

Article Type

Hypothesis

Date

Received May 14, 2013; Accepted May 17, 2013; Published June 08, 2013

Since the first discovery in the early 1990’s, the predicted and validated population of microRNAs (miRNAs or miRs) has grown significantly. These small (~22 nucleotides long) regulators of gene expression have been implicated and associated with several genes in the cancer pathway as well. Globally, the identification and verification of microRNAs as biomarkers for cancer cell types has been the area of thrust for most miRNA biologists. However, there has been a noticeable vacuum when it comes to identifying a common signature or trademark that could be used to demarcate a miR to be associated with the development or suppression of cancer. To answer these queries, we report an in silico study involving the identification of global signatures in experimentally validated microRNAs which have been associated with cancer. This study has thrown light on the presence of significant common signatures, viz., - sequential and hybridization, which may distinguish a miR to be associated with cancer. Based on our analysis, we suggest the utility of such signatures in the design and development of algorithms for prediction of miRs involved in the cancer pathway.

Keywords

MicroRNA, Signatures, Matches, Seeds, Hybridization.

Citation

Ram & Biswas,   Bioinformation 9(10): 524-527 (2013)

Edited by

P Kangueane

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.