Structural and Contextual Study of MicroRNA-Target Site Interaction in 3 UTR of Protein Coding Genes, Based on Exact Validated Evidences

The objective of this study was to investigate the underlying characteristics of microRNA (miRNA) interaction and and their target sites based on highly accurate published wet lab findings. The miRNAs are a subclass of noncoding RNA with a widespread function in the majority of biological processes via their roles in regulating gene expression. A dilemma regarding the implicating of miRNAs in genetics engineering is their complicate mechanism for target detection and their extended functions. In this regard, we investigated characteristics of miRNA and mRNA interaction. After collecting validated interactions and filtering non-informatic and less accurate records, structural attributes and contextual characteristics of these interactions were investigated. The features were: statistically significant for target site observation in 3’UTR sequence, correlation with AREs elements, composition of nucleotides and their status in duplex, and some structural and positional attributes. Our findings approved previous suggested features and brought out new results such as the relationship of target sites with AREs and some structural and contextual attributions which place emphasis on the importance of positional and compositional state of nucleotide in miRNA-mRNA interaction.