Wang, Changliang, Knott, K. Emily, Heikkinen, Liisa, Yang, Yang, Chen, Liang, Wong, Garry
[
International Worm Meeting,
2019]
microRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small noncoding RNA derived from primary miRNA transcripts and processed into precursors and eventually to mature miRNAs 21-22 nucleotides in length. miRNAs were originally discovered in C. elegans and are now known to be expressed in animals, plants, and viruses. miRNAs exert their actions as important regulators of cell proliferation, growth, and development via RNA silencing mechanisms. Bioinformatics resources for miRNA study have been developed, but identifying a correct tool for a specific application is tedious and laborious. In order to facilitate this process, we developed a database portal named miRToolsGallery by manual curation of approximately 1000 tools and resources. With miRToolsGallery, a user can easily locate the appropriate tool for an investigation by implementing a searchable and rankable query function. Tools are ranked by different criteria from PageRank algorithm to most recent publication date to number of publications. The portal contains tools covering a broad range of organisms including C. elegans. The tools also encompass an expansive range of applications from target identification to orthology search. Moreover, the tool is a rapid way to locate recent literature within the miRNA bioinformatics field and to identify current trends. One such trend identified with the tool was the stability and frequent use of some very old computational tools, despite the rapid and enormous advancement in knowledge of miRNA function. The resource is available at www.mirtoolsgallery.org. This research was supported in part by the Research grant of Garry Wong MYRG2016-00101-FHS.