Published in

Oxford University Press, Database, (2014), 2014

DOI: 10.1093/database/bau080

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

miRBase Tracker: keeping track of microRNA annotation changes

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Published version: archiving allowed
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Since 2002, information on individual microRNAs (miRNAs), such as reference names and sequences, has been stored in miRBase, the reference database for miRNA annota- tion. As a result of progressive insights into the miRNome and its complexity, miRBase underwent addition and deletion of miRNA records, changes in annotated miRNA se- quences and adoption of more complex naming schemes over time. Unfortunately, miRBase does not allow straightforward assessment of these ongoing miRNA annota- tion changes, which has resulted in substantial ambiguity regarding miRNA identity and sequence in public literature, in target prediction databases and in content on various commercially available analytical platforms. As a result, correct interpretation, compari- son and integration of miRNA study results are compromised, which we demonstrate here by assessing the impact of ignoring sequence annotation changes. To address this problem, we developed miRBase Tracker (www.mirbasetracker.org), an easy-to-use on- line database that keeps track of all historical and current miRNA annotation present in the miRBase database. Three basic functionalities allow researchers to keep their miRNA annotation up-to-date, reannotate analytical miRNA platforms and link published results with outdated annotation to the latest miRBase release. We expect miRBase Tracker to increase the transparency and annotation accuracy in the field of miRNA research. Database URL: www.mirbasetracker.org