Temporal Expression Analysis to Unravel Gene Regulatory Dynamics by microRNAs

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs) of length 21-25 nucleotides. These sncRNAs hybridize to repress their target genes and inhibit protein translation, thereby controlling regulatory functions in the cell. Integration of time-series matched small and RNA-seq data enables investigation of dynamic gene regulation through miRNAs during development or in response to a stimulus, such as stress. Here we summarize analysis strategies, such as probabilistic and regression-based models, that take advantage of the temporal dimension to investigate the complexity of miRNA regulation.