The miRNA Registry was set up to manage the increasing number of microRNAs that are being discovered. It was developed by the team behind Rfam UK (the RNA Families Database of Alignments and Covariance Models) with support from several well-known RNA researchers.
The database provides researchers with a means of searching information on published miRNAs — both precursor and mature sequences — by accession number, identifier, reference details and by BLASTing with sequence data. You can also 'Browse miRNAs' by species. Each miRNA entry is well presented: relevant publications are listed, along with background information (including where the miRNA gene maps to) and links to related miRNAs and other databases, in addition to providing the precursor and mature sequences.
This registry also provides an invaluable naming scheme: miRNA sequences can be submitted for naming once a manuscript has been accepted for publication, the idea being that this will prevent distinct genes and miRNAs with the same names from being published.
The latest version of this database (Release 3.0), which was made available in January 2004, contains 719 entries — 213 more entries than Release 2.0, which was only made available in July 2003. And, in addition to the entries from Caenorhabditis elegans, C. briggsae, Drosophila melanogaster, human, mouse and Arabidopsis thaliana, Release 3.0 also contains miRNAs from both rat and rice.
As the number of miRNAs being discovered looks set to continue to rise rapidly, this site is sure to become an even more valuable resource for the miRNA community.
FURTHER READING
Griffiths-Jones, S. The microRNA Registry. Nucleic Acids Res. 1 Jan 2004 (doi:10.1093/nar/gkh023)
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Wilson, N. The miRNA Registry. Nat Rev Genet 5, 244 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg1334
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg1334
