A comprehensive identification of the microrna transcriptome and its application in B cell malignancies

Abstract

BACKGROUND: MicroRNAs are 18-22 nucleotide-long RNA molecules that regulate expression of genes. We and others have previously demonstrated a role for microRNAs in the pathogenesis of B cell malignancies. Computational predictions suggest that the human genome encodes several thousand microRNAs. Thus far, about 700 microRNAs have been discovered in humans, including over 200 new microRNAs in the past year alone. The ongoing discovery of microRNAs makes it difficult to comprehensively study their role in a disease group. The advent of high throughput sequencing allows the simultaneous identification of millions of transcripts, thereby providing a sensitivity that is several orders of magnitude higher than conventional methods. We hypothesized that high throughput sequencing would be an effective tool to comprehensively identify microRNAs in normal and malignant B cells …