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Updated: May 31, 2026

CRISPR Gene Editing Tool for MicroRNA Cluster Network Analysis
Published on: April 25, 2022
An X chromosome microRNA cluster in the marsupial species Monodelphis domestica
Eric J Devor1, Lingyan Huang, Amanda Wise
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA. eric-devor@uiowa.edu
Abstract:
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are an important class of posttranscriptional gene expression regulators. In the course of mapping novel marsupial-specific miRNAs in the genome of the gray short-tailed opossum, Monodelphis domestica, we encountered a cluster of 39 actual and potential miRNAs spanning 102 kb of the X chromosome. Analysis of the cluster revealed that 37 of the 39 miRNAs are predicted to form thermodynamically stable hairpins, and at least 3 members have been directly cloned from M. domestica tissues. The sequence characteristics of these miRNAs suggest that they all descended from a single common ancestor. Further, 2 distinct families appear to have diversified from the ancestral sequence through different duplication mechanisms: one through a series of simple tandem duplications and the other through a recurrent transposon-mediated duplication process.
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