RESEARCH ARTICLE Integrating microRNA and f

Full list of author information is available at the end of the articleOnly recently it has been shown that animal and plant genomes produce numerous small, noncoding RNAs that act as a guide for the Argonaute effector protein regulat-ing gene expression and affecting processes of metabol-ism, development, epigenetic inheritance, and others [1-4]. Three classes of small RNAs (smRNAs) have been described, microRNAs (miRNAs), small interfering RNAs are the most common and best understood class of non-coding RNAs, but with ongoing research in the field of RNAi, differences and similarities in biogenesis and functionality of the different smRNA classes are becoming clearer [6]. miRNAs are ~22 nt small non-coding RNAs implicated in the regulation of gene expres-sion in development and cell differentiation, the immune system, and homeostasis [7,8]. Homologous binding o