Prevalence of miRNAs in Introns and Cis-Regulatory Regions of Genes of the Somatotropic Axis in Mammals

To understand the role of microRNA in genetic control of animal growth mechanisms, we performed bioinformatic analysis of the localization of microRNAs in introns and cis-regulatory regions of the somatotropic axis genes-GH1, GHRH, SST and IGF1 in Homo sapiens, Macaca mulatta, Pan troglodytes, Pongo abelii, Gorilla gorilla, Ovis aries, Bos Taurus, Loxodonta Africana, Oryctolagus cuniculus, Canis lupus, Rattus norvegicus and Mus musculus. The results showed a significant difference in copy number of investigated microRNAs in the somatotropic axis genes surroundings in all primates. Copies of the mir-566, mir-1273, mir-1268, hsa-mir-5096 and hsa-mir-3929 mature sequences were frequently observed in cis-regulatory regions of these genes. The greatest number of motifs in cis-regulatory regions and introns of the investigated genes was detected for the hsa-mir-5096 and hsa-mir-1268. We assume that the observed microRNAs may play an important role in the formation of morphological and physiological traits such as weight and height in mammals.