トラフグ小分子RNAの網羅的解析

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1. Purpose ofresearchIntensive stUdies of miRNAs in many organisms have revealed that the miRNAs were involved in various biological phenomena.However researches of fish miRNAs have been poorly addressed compare with human and mouse. TorafUgu (Takifugu rubripes), is another model organism withknown genome sequence and one ofthe most intensively studied fish species. The genome of the torafhgu is only about eight times smaller than human genome in size, but has a similar repertoire of protein coding genes.Therefore, it may also be useful for unveiling non-coding genes including miRNA genes.2. Research Implementation PlanWe plan to fully identify torafugu miRNA in 9 tissues (Fast and slow muscles, heart, eye, brain, intestine, liver, ovary and testis) in order to understand how specific miRNAs regulate gene expression in the various organs of fish and elucidate their biological function.3. ResultWe found about 9000 known miRNA species, About 2000 miRNA species have not yet been identified in fish but already reported in other species. Moreover, we found about 40 miRNAs species were fish specific. Many known miRNAs showed strong expression in specific tissues. These expression patterns of the known miRNAs were similar with those of previous reports in other animals. Most of miRNAs were mainly expressed in tissues other than ovary and testis. However, some miRNA families were highly abundant in gonads but slightly expressed in somatic tissues, suggesting their specific functions in germ line cell.Longer small RNAs (26-28 nt) which are abundant in gonads may be putative piRNAs. In addition, the data may also included many putative miRNAs, esiRNAs and a large number of unassigned small RNAs.