Altered miRNA repertoire in the simplified chordate, Oikopleura dioica.

Mol Biol Evol. 2008 Jun;25(6):1067-80. doi:10.1093/molbev/msn060

Fu X, Adamski M, Thompson EM.

miRNA array spotted on N+ membranes. Confirms the existence of Drosha, DGCR8, Dicer, and 3 AGO proteins. “Five compact clusters containing 15 miRNAs were identified, and the distance between adjacent members was systematically less than 100 bp.” 36% of the miRNAs were long of 22 nucleotides. “many O. dioica miRNAs were found to be located in the antisense orientation of a protein-coding gene, often opposite the sense strand of an intron.” “let-7a [...] was not detected during embryogenesis but was observed in the postmetamorphic oikoplastic epithelium.”