miRGator: an integrated system for functional annotation of microRNAs

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) constitute an important class of regulators that are involved in various cellular and disease processes. However, the functional significance of each miRNA is mostly unknown due to the difficulty in identifying target genes and the lack of genome-wide expression data combining miRNAs, mRNAs and proteins. We introduce a novel database, miRGator, that integrates the target prediction, functional analysis, gene expression data and genome annotation. MiRNA function is inferred from the list of target genes predicted by miRanda, PicTar and TargetScanS programs. Statistical enrichment test of target genes in each term is performed for gene ontology, pathway and disease annotations. Associated terms may provide valuable insights for the function of each miRNA. For the expression analysis, miRGator integrates public expression data of miRNA with those of mRNA and protein. Expression correlation between miRNA and target mRNA/proteins is evaluated and their expression pattern...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: NAR
• Authors: Seungyoon Nam, Bumjin Kim, Seokmin Shin, Sanghyuk Lee
• Keywords: Expression Data, MiRNA, NAR 2006, NAR 2008, Target Genes