CHO smallRNA sequencing for microRNA annotation. Cricetulus griseus

MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNAs that play a critical role in post-transcriptional control of gene expression. Recent publications of genomic sequencing data from CHO cells provide new tools for the discovery of novel miRNAs in this important production system. The current release of the miRNA registry miRBase contains 307 mature miRNAs and 200 precursor sequences. We searched for evolutionary conserved miRNAs in recently published genomic data, derived from hamster and CHO cells, to further extend the list of known miRNAs. With our approach we could identify several dozens novel miRNAs and verify their expression with multiple next-generation sequencing experiments. In addition, a great amount of unexpressed miRNAs could be found, awaiting further confirmation by testing for their transcription in different Chinese hamster tissues. Overall design: Two batch processes with 6 samples each