Computational identification of putative miRNAs and their target genes in pathogenic amoeba Naegleria fowleri

Dyavegowda Padmashree; Narayanaswamy Ramachandra Swamy

doi:10.6026/97320630011550

Computational identification of putative miRNAs and their target genes in pathogenic amoeba Naegleria fowleri

Bioinformation. 2015 Dec 31;11(12):550-7. doi: 10.6026/97320630011550. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Dyavegowda Padmashree¹, Narayanaswamy Ramachandra Swamy¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Biochemistry, Central College Campus, Bangalore University, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.

Abstract

Naegleria fowleri is a parasitic unicellular free living eukaryotic amoeba. The parasite spreads through contaminated water and causes primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). Therefore, it is of interest to understand its molecular pathogenesis. Hence, we analyzed the parasite genome for miRNAs (microRNAs) that are non-coding, single stranded RNA molecules. We identified 245 miRNAs using computational methods in N. fowleri, of which five miRNAs are conserved. The predicted miRNA targets were analyzed by using miRanda (software) and further studied the functions by subsequently annotating using AmiGo (a gene ontology web tool).

Keywords: Computational approach; Naegleria fowleri; PAM; Prediction; miRNAs.