microRNA Omnibus

Dear Colleagues,

Since the discovery of microRNAs (miRNAs) in the early 90s, this ~ 22-nucleotide long RNA molecule has been placed in numerous biological contexts, where it conducts post-transcriptional, and perhaps even transcriptional regulation of gene expression and RNA silencing. miRNAs are present in mammals, plants and some viruses, and their function is based on the resemblance that they share with mRNAs, which allows them to bind those molecules and modulate their expression through different mechanisms such as elongation inhibition, cap initiation inhibition and mRNA decay.

The number of publications including miRNAs has grown exponentially since their first definition. Most notably, many findings have established that miRNAs are conserved through evolution, regulate the expression of hundreds of genes involved in cancer or other diseases and influence the epigenome. It is estimated that the human genome may encode over 2,000 miRNAs, and as more research is done on this topic, we keep finding novel circumstances where miRNAs play a significant role, such as in obesity, homeostasis, alcoholism and kidney disease, to name a few.

The increasing interest in miRNAs has encouraged us to prepare this topical collection, where we intend to publish new findings on miRNA research and create a collection that tracks the different progresses made in the field over the years. We invite interested authors to submit original research articles, reviews, concept papers and commentaries to this topical collection.

Prof. Clifford J. Steer
Dr. Subree Subramanian
Dr. Tilman Sanchez-Elsner
Collection Editors

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