Computational Identification and Characterization of Putative miRNAs in Nasonia Species

MicroRNAs are important at post transcriptional regulation in eukaryotes. Nasonia genus is becoming increasingly popular model in present days due to genetic advantages it possesses over Drosophila. Nasonia species are found distributed throughout the world, expect for N. longicornis, and N. giraulti. In this study, we use the sequential method of blasting all known invertebrate miRNA genes against the Nasonia vitripennis, Nasonia longicornis, and Nasonia giraulti genomes. We identify 40, 31 and 29 putative pre-miRNAs and mature sequences in N. vitripennis, N. giraulti and N. longicornis respectively. A cross species comparison of putative miRNA sequences and their statistical characteristics reveals that there are no huge differences between the species, except for few miRNAs which are reported. We also find that the minimal folding energy index for three Nasonia species pre-miRNA’s average is around 0.85 ± 0.11. Further, we report that U is predominant at the 5` end of mature sequence, which being a typical characteristic of plant miRNAs. Using MiRanda, we predict nearly 471 potential sites in the N. vitripennis genome. Thus concluding our study to be the beginning of understanding the Nasonia’s non coding RNAs and may play an important role in effective pest management in near future.