- Dr. Margarete Fischer-Bosch Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, University of Tuebingen, Stuttgart, Germany
MicroRNAs (miRNA) are small non-coding RNA molecules of ∼22 nucleotides
which regulate large numbers of genes by binding to seed sequences at
the 3′-untranslated region of target gene transcripts. The target mRNA
is then usually degraded or translation is inhibited, although thus
resulting in posttranscriptional down regulation of gene expression at
the mRNA and/or protein level. Due to the bioinformatic difficulties in
predicting functional miRNA binding sites, several publically available
databases have been developed that predict miRNA binding sites based on
different algorithms. The parallel use of different databases is
currently indispensable, but highly uncomfortable and time consuming,
especially when working with numerous genes of interest. We have
therefore developed a new stand-alone program, termed MIRNA-DISTILLER,
which allows to compile miRNA data for given target genes from public
databases. Currently implemented are TargetScan, microCosm, and miRDB,
which may be queried independently, pairwise, or together to calculate
the respective intersections. Data are stored locally for application of
further analysis tools including freely definable biological parameter
filters, customized output-lists for both miRNAs and target genes, and
various graphical facilities. The software, a data example file and a
tutorial are freely available at http://www.ikp-stuttgart.de/content/language1/html/10415.asp
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