miRTarBase

miRTarBase curates experimentally validated microRNA–target interactions (MTIs) to provide a reference for studying how microRNAs (~22 nucleotides) bind messenger RNAs and regulate gene expression.

Key Features:

• Experimentally validated MTIs: Collects MTIs that are supported by experimental evidence to document confirmed miRNA–mRNA regulatory relationships.
• Validation methods: Records interactions validated by reporter assays, western blotting, and microarray experiments involving miRNA overexpression or knockdown.
• Dataset scope and counts: Contains 3,576 experimentally verified MTIs involving 657 distinct miRNAs and 2,297 target genes across 17 species.
• Manual curation: Derives data from manual curation of the literature and functional studies to ensure evidence-backed interactions.
• Support for computational work: Provides a reference dataset used to support and evaluate computational miRNA–target interaction prediction methods.
• Repository scale: Reports being the largest repository of validated MTIs compared to similar databases.

Scientific Applications:

• miRNA functional characterization: Enables investigation of miRNA roles in gene regulation and cellular mechanisms across conditions and species.
• Mechanistic studies: Supports study of miRNA-mediated repression of protein synthesis via documented miRNA–mRNA interactions.
• Computational model development: Serves as a benchmark and training resource for developing and validating miRNA–target prediction algorithms.

Methodology:

Interactions are compiled by manual literature curation and recorded when supported by experimental methods such as reporter assays, western blotting, and microarray experiments involving miRNA overexpression or knockdown.