Evolutionary and Expression Analysis of miR-#-5p and miR-#-3p at the miRNAs/isomiRs Levels

We mainly discussed miR-#-5p and miR-#-3p under three aspects: (1) primary evolutionary analysis of human miRNAs; (2) evolutionary analysis of miRNAs from different arms across the typical 10 vertebrates; (3) expression pattern analysis of miRNAs at the miRNA/isomiR levels using public small RNA sequencing datasets. We found that no bias can be detected between the numbers of 5p-miRNA and 3p-miRNA, while miRNAs from miR-#-5p and miR-#-3p show variable nucleotide compositions. IsomiR expression profiles from the two arms are always stable, but isomiR expressions in diseased samples are prone to show larger degree of dispersion. miR-#-5p and miR-#-3p have relative independent evolution/expression patterns and datasets of target mRNAs, which might also contribute to the phenomena of arm selection and/or arm switching. Simultaneously, miRNA/isomiR expression profiles may be regulated via arm selection and/or arm switching, and the dynamic miRNAome and isomiRome will adapt to functional and/or evolutionary pressures. A comprehensive analysis and further experimental study at the miRNA/isomiR levels are quite necessary for miRNA study.