Computational Methods for Predicting Mature microRNAs.

Tiny single-stranded noncoding RNAs with size 19-27 nucleotides serve as microRNAs (miRNAs), which have emerged as key gene regulators in the last two decades. miRNAs serve as one of the hallmarks in regulatory pathways with critical roles in human diseases. Ever since the discovery of miRNAs, researchers have focused on how mature miRNAs are produced from precursor mRNAs. Experimental methods are faced with notorious challenges in terms of experimental design, since it is time consuming and not cost-effective. Hence, different computational methods have been employed for the identification of miRNA sequences where most of them labeled as miRNA predictors are in fact pre-miRNA predictors and provide no information about the putative miRNA location within the pre-miRNA. This chapter provides an update and the current state of the art in this area covering various methods and 15 software suites used for prediction of mature miRNA.