A.K. Mishra and H.Chandrasekharan, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, India

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression. Identification of total number of miRNAs even in completely sequenced organisms is still an open problem. However, researchers have been using techniques that can predict limited number of miRNA in an organism. In this paper, we have used homology based approach for comparative analysis of miRNA of hexapoda group .We have used Apis mellifera, Bombyx mori, Anopholes gambiae and Drosophila melanogaster miRNA datasets from miRBase repository. We have done pair wise as well as multiple alignments for the available miRNAs in the repository to identify and analyse conserved regions among related species. Unfortunately, to the best of our knowledge, miRNA related literature does not provide in depth analysis of hexapods. We have made an attempt to derive the commonality among the miRNAs and to identify the conserved regions which are still not available in miRNA repositories. The results are good approximation with a small number of mismatches. However, they are encouraging and may facilitate miRNA biogenesis for hexapods.

miRNA, homology, alignment, conservation, sequences