miRNEST

miRNEST provides a comprehensive database of predicted and curated microRNAs across animal, plant, and virus species to support discovery, comparative genomics, and functional analyses.

Key Features:

• Extensive Species Coverage: Contains predictions and data from 225 animal and 202 plant species, with stated total coverage of 544 species, based on miRNA prediction efforts conducted on Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs).
• Advanced Prediction Methodology: Uses a sequence similarity–based search algorithm and reports up to 10,004 miRNA candidates across 221 animal and 199 plant species.
• Integration with External Data: Integrates miRNA data from literature and 13 other databases, including sequences, small RNA sequencing data, expression profiles, polymorphisms, target information, and links to additional resources.

Scientific Applications:

• Discovery of Novel miRNAs: Supports identification of microRNAs not cataloged in other resources such as miRBase by providing extensive cross-species predictions.
• Comparative Genomics and Evolutionary Studies: Enables comparative analyses across diverse species to study miRNA evolution and conservation.
• Functional Annotation and Target Prediction: Provides expression profiles and target information to aid functional annotation and prediction of miRNA targets.
• Biodiversity and Conservation Research: Supplies plant and other species data useful for studies in biodiversity, conservation biology, and ecological roles of miRNAs.

Methodology:

miRNA prediction was performed on Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) using a sequence similarity–based search algorithm, and external data were integrated from literature and 13 other databases including sequences, small RNA-seq data, expression profiles, polymorphisms, and target information.