MicroRNA sequencing between control and 20-hour anoxic red-eared slider turtle hearts

Red-eared slider turtles (Trachemys scripta elegans) possess exceptional tolerance to prolonged periods of anoxia, surviving seasonally in oxygen-deprived environments without apparent cardiac damage. This resilience is supported by deep metabolic suppression and transcriptional reprogramming, but the contribution of microRNA (miRNA) in post-transcriptional gene regulatory control remains poorly understood. Here, we employed high-throughput small RNA sequencing to profile cardiac miRNA expression under normoxic and anoxic conditions. Our study provides novel insights into the post-transcriptional control of vertebrate anoxia tolerance and highlights potential conserved regulatory motifs relevant to ischemia-reperfusion medicine.