Computational prediction and experimental validation of evolutionarily conserved microRNA target genes in bilaterian animals

Table 2 Summary of target gene extraction after each screening step

	H. sapiens	M. musculus	G. gallus	D. melanogaster	C. elegans	Ratio of predicted miRNA/target-gene pairs (%)	Ratio of experimentally verified miRNA/target-gene pairs (%)	Enrichment
All possible miRNA/gene pairs	97820	98790	53995	52850	53975	357430/357430 (100)	145/145 (100)	1.0
STEP 1 (Free energy and seed region)	56666	53420	20410	14098	8793	153387/357430 (42.9)	112/145 (77.2)	1.8
STEP 2 (Optimal parameter)	12405	11256	2524	1118	898	28201/357430 (7.9)	76/145 (52.4)	6.6
STEP 3			31			31/10356* (0.3)	4/52 (7.7)	25.7

The total number of possible target genes for the five miRNAs (let-7, miR-1, miR-124, miR-125/lin-4, and miR-34) is represented for the five model species at each screening step (see Figure 1). Asterisks indicate the number of orthologous genes conserved among at least four species. Enrichment was calculated as the "ratio of experimentally verified miRNA/target-gene pairs" divided by the "ratio of predicted miRNA/target-gene pairs".

ISSN: 1471-2164