MapMi

MapMi maps known microRNA (miRNA) sequences from one species to predict orthologous precursor loci in other species to support cross-species miRNA conservation analysis and genome annotation.

Key Features:

• Automated Mapping: Maps mature miRNA sequences to locate potential miRNA precursor loci within genomic datasets such as Ensembl and Ensembl Metazoa.
• Orthologue Prediction: Predicts likely orthologous miRNA loci in related and distantly related species using reference miRNA sequences.
• Sensitivity and Specificity: Reports a sensitivity of 92.20% and a specificity of 97.73% for miRNA mapping.
• Cross-Species Application: Demonstrated across 21 species in Ensembl Metazoa release 2 and 46 species in Ensembl release 55.
• Integration with miRBase: Uses miRBase release v14 as a source of validated miRNA annotations.
• Discovery of Unannotated miRNAs: Identified 10,944 potential unannotated miRNAs across the analyzed species.

Scientific Applications:

• Orthologous Mapping: Enables identification of validated miRNAs' most likely orthologues in other species to study evolutionary conservation.
• Genomic Annotation Enhancement: Fills annotation gaps by identifying potential miRNA loci not documented in existing genome annotations.
• Comparative Genomics: Supports comparative analyses of miRNA presence and variation across multiple species.

Methodology:

Uses the sequence of a known miRNA from one species as a reference to predict genomic loci in other species based on sequence similarity and conservation patterns.