Poster abstracts

Poster number 52 submitted by Jason Rozick

Functional features of nuclear pre-mRNA introns containing miRNA coding regions

Siddharth Patil (BGES, Cleveland State University), Jinani Slaibi (BGES, Cleveland State University), Jason Rozick (BGES, Cleveland State University), Tiffany Kaul, Neha Aggarwal, Kavleen Sikand, Girish Shukla (BGES, Cleveland State University)

Abstract:
Numerous cell processes including transcription, nuclear pre-mRNA splicing, nonsense mediated decay, 5’ and 3’ end modification of mRNA and translation are influenced by a variety of cis-acting regulatory sequences found in human genome. It is expected that human genome encodes numerous other elements and motifs which may support optimal gene expression. Therefore the identification of such cis-regulatory elements and their functional significance is crucial to understand their role in human gene expression. A number of recently discovered noncoding RNAs known as micro (mi) RNAs are encoded within the coding (exon) and noncoding (intron) regions of a variety of functionally important human and other mammalian genes. We are interested in decoding the roles of these cis-acting sequences which comprise miRNAs ‘genomic neighborhoods’ in the overall gene expression cascade. Using bioinformatics approach we are attempting to identify, catalog and evaluate the function of these sequence elements that are found within the neighboring exons and introns of 85 human and 7 mouse miRNA host introns. Using a genome wide comparative genomics approach, currently we are developing a dataset that would eventually contain the comprehensive information with respect to human and other mammalian intronic miRNAs. The dataset is comprised of the information including the size of introns, size of exons, intronic splicing silencers, exonic splicing enhancers, consensus 5’ and 3’ splice sites, and various RNA binding protein region information. The identification and functional evaluation of these regulatory motifs and elements would help us to understand their role in coordinated events of nuclear pre-mRNA splicing and miRNA processing. Additionally, experimental analysis of functionally important regulatory noncoding miRNA molecules may provide better understanding of gene regulation, drug target discovery, and clinical prognosis for important disease states including cancer.

Keywords: miRNAs, bioinformatics