Contribution of miRNA non-seed region to gene silencing.

The list of putative targets perfectly matching the miRNA seed region (positions 2–8) was intersected with a list of experimentally validated miRNA targets [23]. Genes present on both lists were placed in the ‘Validated Targets’ group, while genes predicted to interact with miRNA but which have not been experimentally confirmed, were placed in ‘Remaining Genes’ group. The GC content in the positions 8–15 was calculated for both groups and compared. The difference was calculated by subtracting values of the ‘remaining’ group from the values in the ‘validated’ group.将与微小RNA（miRNA）种子区（对应位置2至8）完全匹配的推定靶点列表，与经实验验证的微小RNA靶点列表[23]取交集。同时出现在两份列表中的基因被归入"已验证靶点"组；而被预测可与微小RNA结合但未获得实验证实的基因，则被归入"剩余基因"组。分别计算两组基因在位置8至15的GC含量并进行组间比较。差异值通过"已验证靶点"组的数值减去"剩余基因"组的数值计算得出。