Among the fundamental biological processes affected by microRNAs, small regulators of gene expression, a potential role in host-parasite communication is intriguing. We compared the miRNA complement of extracellular vesicles released by the free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans in culture to that of other adult parasitic nematodes. Expecting convergent functional roles for secreted miRNAs due to the common parasitic lifestyle of the organisms under investigation, we performed a miRNA sequence analysis as well as target search and pathway enrichment for potential mRNA targets within host immune functions. We found that the parasite miRNA seed sequences were more often identical to those of C. elegans, rather than to those of their hosts. However, we observed that the nematode-secreted miRNA fractions shared more often seed sequences with host miRNAs than those that are not found in the extracellular environment. Development and proliferation of immune cells was predicted to be affected several-fold by nematode miRNA release. In addition, we identified the AGE-RAGE signaling as a convergent targeted pathway by species-specific miRNAs from several parasitic species. We propose a multi-species comparative approach to differentiate those miRNAs that may have critical functions in host modulation, from those that may not. With our simple analysis, we put forward a workflow to study traits of parasitism at the miRNA level. This work will find even more resonance and significance, as an increasing amount of parasite miRNA collections are expected to be produced in the future.

中文翻译：

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C. elegans 的细胞外囊泡 microRNA 作为破译线虫寄生分子基础的工具。

在受 microRNA（基因表达的小调节因子）影响的基本生物学过程中，宿主-寄生虫交流中的潜在作用很有趣。我们将培养中的自由生活线虫秀丽隐杆线虫释放的细胞外囊泡的 miRNA 补体与其他成年寄生线虫的 miRNA 补体进行了比较。由于受调查生物体的常见寄生生活方式，预计分泌的 miRNA 具有收敛的功能作用，我们对宿主免疫功能中的潜在 mRNA 靶标进行了 miRNA 序列分析以及靶标搜索和通路富集。我们发现寄生虫 miRNA 种子序列通常与秀丽隐杆线虫的种子序列相同，而不是与其宿主的相同。然而，我们观察到线虫分泌的 miRNA 部分与宿主 miRNA 共享的种子序列比那些在细胞外环境中未发现的序列更频繁。预测免疫细胞的发育和增殖会受到线虫 miRNA 释放的数倍影响。此外，我们通过来自几种寄生物种的物种特异性 miRNA 将 AGE-RAGE 信号确定为收敛的靶向途径。我们提出了一种多物种比较方法来区分那些可能在宿主调节中具有关键功能的 miRNA，以及那些可能没有的。通过我们的简单分析，我们提出了在 miRNA 水平上研究寄生性状的工作流程。这项工作将发现更多的共鸣和意义，因为预计未来会产生越来越多的寄生虫 miRNA 集合。