Genome?]wide identification of microRNAs and their targets in the zoonotic parasite Echinococcus canadensis

MACCHIAROLI N; CUCHER M; MALDONADO L; KAMENETZKY L; ROSENZVIT M

Congreso; VI Argentinian Conference on Bioinformatics and Computational Biology; 2015

Background MicroRNAs (miRNAs), a class of small non-coding RNAs, are key regulators of gene expressionat post-transcriptional level and play essential roles in biological processes such as development and metabolism.MiRNAs silence target mRNAs by binding to complementary sequences in the 3untranslated regions (UTRs)of their target mRNAs. Here, we perform a comprehensive analysis of miRNAs and their targets in thecestode parasite Echinococcus canadensis, one of the causative agents of the neglected zoonotic disease cysticechinococcosis.Materials and methods Small cDNA libraries from two developmental stages, protoscoleces and cyst walls ofE. canadensis were sequenced using Illumina technology. For miRNA prediction, miRDeep2 core algorithm wasused. Dierential expression analysis of miRNAs between developmental stages was estimated with DESeq andvalidated using poly-A RT-qPCR. Potential mRNA targets of dierentially expressed miRNAs were identiedusing miRanda algorithm and then ltered using dierent criteria such as conservation of miRNA binding sitesin orthologous mRNAs of other cestode parasites in order to obtain a high condence set of predictions.Functional information of the potential mRNA targets was obtained from GeneDB, wormParasite DataBaseand KEEG databases.Results In this study we used a high-throughput approach to expand the miRNA repertoire of E. canadensis.Dierential expression analysis showed highly regulated miRNAs between life cycle stages, suggesting a role inmaintaining the features of each developmental stage or in the regulation of developmental timing. Here weconrmed the remarkable loss of conserved miRNA families in E. canadensis, reecting their low morphologicalcomplexity and high adaptation to parasitism.Conclusions We performed the rst in-depth study proling of small RNAs in the zoonotic parasite E. canadensis.We found that miRNAs are the preponderant small RNA silencing molecules, suggesting that these smallRNAs could be an essential mechanism of gene regulation in this species. Functional analysis of the dierentiallyexpressed miRNAs and their potential targets will contribute to elucidate their role in the parasite biology.MicroRNAs associated with parasite development, metabolism, host-parasite interaction and survival representpotential targets for the development of new therapeutic interventions.VICAB