A Study of the Evolution of Human microRNAs by Their Apparent Repression Effectiveness on Target Genes

Even though the genomes of many model species have already been sequenced, our knowledge of gene regulation in evolution is still very limited. One big obstacle is that it is hard to predict the target genes of transcriptional factors accurately from sequences. In this respect, microRNAs (miRNAs) are different from transcriptional factors, as target genes of miRNAs can be readily predicted from sequences. This feature of miRNAs offers an unprecedented vantage point for evolutionary analysis of gene regulation.. can be explained by the existence of a trend of miRNAs in evolution to effectively control more target genes, which is beneficial to the miRNAs but not necessarily to the organism at all times. Our results from miRNAs gave us an insight of the complex interplay between regulators and target genes in evolution