identification and characterization of novel micrornas from schistosoma japonicum识别和描述从日本血吸虫新型小分子核糖核酸.pdfVIP

Identification and Characterization of Novel MicroRNAs from Schistosoma japonicum 1,3 1 1 1 2 1,2 Xiangyang Xue , Jun Sun , Qingfeng Zhang , Zhangxun Wang , Yufu Huang , Weiqing Pan * 1 Institute for Infectious Diseases and Vaccine Development, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China, 2 Department of Pathogenic Biology, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China, 3 Department of Microbiology, Wenzhou Medical College, University-town, Wenzhou, China Abstract Background: Schistosomiasis japonica remains a major public health problem in China. Its pathogen, Schistosoma japonicum has a complex life cycle and a unique repertoire of genes expressed at different life cycle stages. Exploring schistosome gene regulation will yield the best prospects for new drug targets and vaccine candidates. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a highly conserved class of noncoding RNA that control many biological processes by sequence-specific inhibition of gene expression. Although a large number of miRNAs have been identified from plants to mammals, it remains no experimental proof whether schistosome exist miRNAs. Methodology and Results: We have identified novel miRNAs from Schistosoma japonicum by cloning and sequencing a small (18–26 nt) RNA cDNA library from the adult worms. Five novel miRNAs were identified from 227 cloned RNA sequences and verified by Northern blot. Alignments of the miRNAs with corresponding family members indicated that four of them belong to a metazoan miRNA family: let-7, miR-71, bantam and miR-125. The fifth potentially new (non conserved) miRNA appears to belong to a previously undesc