Genome-wide Identification and Characterization of Features of the Piwi- Interacting RNAs and Targets

Abstract

Small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs) are presently being recognized as an essential player in the modulation of regulatory events and implicated in the etiology of human diseases. In the present study, we comprehensively decoded the presence of Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs), a recently discovered class of sncRNAs in the normal human ovary (NO) and its cancer subtypes: endometrioid ovarian cancer (ENOCa) and serous ovarian cancer (SOCa), along with their characteristic features encoded within sequence and structures as well as target binding features. In this regard, we performed next-generation sequencing (NGS) followed by comprehensive bioinformatics analysis and identified a catalog of 219, 256, and 234 piRNAs in NO, ENOCa, and SOCa samples, respectively. Furthermore, our study revealed some key piRNAs, piR-52207 and piR-33733 involved in the modulation of the pathophysiology of ovarian carcinoma. Moreover, we have identified several sequence and structural features of piRNAs, including its precursors and piRNA target sites, that might aid in the proper identification of piRNAs and their targets, which is essential for decrypting piRNA biogenesis and functions. In summary, the present study decodes piRNA-mediated target regulation in the pathophysiology of ovarian cancer subtypes and distinct sequence and structural features of piRNAs and their target sites providing a complete picture of the piRNAs and piRNA-mediated regulations. This might pave the way for developing tools for predicting piRNAs and their targets more precisely.