In vivo oncomiR screen identifies miR-21* independent of miR-21 as a driver in skin cancer

MicroRNAs are conserved small non-coding RNAs that act post-transcriptionally to orchestrate a wide spectrum of physiological and pathological processes in stem cells and in human cancers. We use miRNAseq to profile miRNA expression and DNA sequencing to quantify inserted miR expression vectors within genomic DNA during an in vivo tumorigenic screen MicroRNA expression patterns from fluorescence-activated cell sorted (FACS) progenitors from embryonic and adult skin epithelia, tumor-initiating stem cells (SCs) from oncogenic HRas-induced benign papillomas and SCCs are analyzed with miRNAseq (12 samples); SA-miR counts (enginnered library inserted into the host cell genome by in utero lentiviral transduction) from in vivo tumorigenic screen are analyzed with DNA seq (5 samples)