BACKGROUND Key genes control the infectivity of the Schistosoma haematobium causing schistosomiasis. A method for understanding the regulation of these genes might help in developing new disease strategies to control schistosomiasis, such as the silencing mediated by microRNAs (miRNAs). The miRNAs have been studied in schistosome species and they play important roles in the post-transcriptional regulation of genes, and in parasite-host interactions. However, genome-wide identification and characterisation of novel miRNAs and their pathway genes and their gene expression have not been explored deeply in the genome and transcriptome of S. haematobium. OBJECTIVES Identify and characterise mature and precursor miRNAs and their pathway genes in the S. haematobium genome. METHODS Computational prediction and characterisation of miRNAs and genes involved in miRNA pathway from S. haematobium genome on SchistoDB. Conserved domain analysis was performed using PFAM and CDD databases. A robust algorithm was applied to identify mature miRNAs and their precursors. The characterisation of the precursor miRNAs was performed using RNAfold, RNAalifold and Perl scripts. FINDINGS We identified and characterised 14 putative proteins involved in miRNA pathway including ARGONAUTE and DICER in S. haematobium. Besides that, 149 mature miRNAs and 131 precursor miRNAs were identified in the genome including novel miRNAs. MAIN CONCLUSIONS miRNA pathway occurs in the S. haematobium, including endogenous miRNAs and miRNA pathway components, suggesting a role of this type of non-coding RNAs in gene regulation in the parasite. The results found in this work will open up a new avenue for studying miRNAs in the S. haematobium biology in helping to understand the mechanism of gene silencing in the human parasite Schistosome.

中文翻译：

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血吸虫引起的人类血吸虫病中miRNA及其途径基因的计算预测和表征。

背景技术关键基因控制引起血吸虫病的血吸虫血吸虫的感染性。一种了解这些基因调控的方法可能有助于开发控制血吸虫病的新疾病策略，例如由microRNA（miRNA）介导的沉默。已在血吸虫物种中研究了miRNA，它们在基因的转录后调控以及寄生虫-宿主相互作用中起着重要作用。但是，尚未在血球链球菌的基因组和转录组中深入研究新型miRNA及其途径基因及其基因表达的全基因组鉴定和表征。目的鉴定和鉴定血生链球菌基因组中的成熟miRNA和前体miRNA及其途径基因。方法在血吸虫血吸虫基因组上的miRNA和miRNA途径中涉及的基因的计算预测和表征。使用PFAM和CDD数据库进行保守的域分析。一种鲁棒的算法被应用于识别成熟的miRNA及其前体。使用RNAfold，RNAalifold和Perl脚本进行前体miRNA的表征。结果我们鉴定并鉴定了14种与miRNA途径有关的推定蛋白质，包括血生链球菌中的ARGONAUTE和DICER。除此之外，在基因组中还鉴定了149个成熟的miRNA和131个前体miRNA，包括新型miRNA。主要结论miRNA途径发生在血生细菌中，包括内源性miRNA和miRNA途径成分，这表明这种非编码RNA在寄生虫基因调控中的作用。