ReviewBioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology2019
Too Many False Targets for MicroRNAs: Challenges and Pitfalls in Prediction of miRNA Targets and Their Gene Ontology in Model and Non-model Organisms.
Review in BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A systematic review of non-coding RNA genes with differential expression profiles associated with autism spectrum disorders.PloS one · 2023Pooled it
- Problems With GO Enrichment as an Endpoint for Ecological Omics Interpretation.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Targetome-defined miR-181c signaling from extracellular vesicles governs periodontal MSC fate via RNF150-MAP3K5.Cell communication and signaling : CCS · 2026Article
- Differential Expression of MicroRNAs in the Mammary Gland of Lactating and Dry Murciano-Granadina Goats.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- OTTR-CLASH: improved biochemical and bioinformatic identification of Argonaute 2-mediated microRNA-target RNA interactions.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- The emerging role of machine learning-based methods in cancer classification using microRNA.Biochemistry and biophysics reports · 2026Review
- Integrated miR-omics and proteomics reveal the regulatory role of miR in protein networks associated with COVID-19 disease progression.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- MicroRNA-425-3p: A Promising Biomarker and Candidate for Pharmacological Intervention in Neuropsychiatric Disabilities with Relevance to Major Depressive Disorder.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2026Review
- An Integrative Framework Identifies Cooperative Targeting of Host Pathways by Tick Salivary miRNAs.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2026Article
- Circulating MicroRNAs do not provide a diagnostic benefit over tissue biopsy in patients with brain metastases.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Loss of multiple micro-RNAs uncovers multi-level restructuring of gene regulation in rodents.BMC genomics · 2025Article
- Charting the equine miRNA landscape: An integrated pipeline and browser for annotating, quantifying, and visualizing expression.PLoS genetics · 2025Article
- miRNA-Mediated Regulation of Gene Expression During Early Activation in Jurkat Cells.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Utilizing RNA-seq data in monotone iterative generalized linear model to elevate prior knowledge quality of the circRNA-miRNA-mRNA regulatory axis.BMC bioinformatics · 2025Article
- Article
- Risk assessment considerations for RNAi-based genetically modified plants.EFSA journal. European Food Safety Authority · 2025Article
- In Silico Prediction of Maize microRNA as a Xanthine Oxidase Inhibitor: A New Approach to Treating Hyperuricemia Patients.Non-coding RNA · 2025Article
- High expression of miR-7974 predicts poor prognosis and is associated with autophagy in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer.PloS one · 2025Article
- Guidelines for mitochondrial RNA analysis.Molecular therapy. Nucleic acids · 2024Review
- Integrative network analysis of miRNA-mRNA expression profiles during epileptogenesis in rats reveals therapeutic targets after emergence of first spontaneous seizure.Scientific reports · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Short ("seed") or extended base pairing between microRNAs (miRNAs) and their target RNAs enables post-transcriptional silencing in many organisms. These interactions allow the computational prediction of potential targets. In model organisms, predicted targets are frequently validated experimentally; hence meaningful miRNA-regulated processes are reported. However, in non-models, these reports mostly rely on computational prediction alone. Many times, further bioinformatic analyses such as Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment are based on these in silico projections. Here such approaches are reviewed, their caveats are highlighted and the ease of picking false targets from predicted lists is demonstrated. Discoveries that shed new light on how miRNAs evolved to regulate targets in various phyletic groups are discussed, in addition to the pitfalls of target identification in non-model organisms. The goal is to prevent the misuse of bioinformatic tools, as they cannot bypass the biological understanding of miRNA-target regulation.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.