MicroRNA and Non-Coding RNA Body Maps: A Comprehensive Resource for Functional Genomics

The Body Map Resource offers researchers access to high-quality, curated expression data and functional annotations for microRNAs (miRNAs) and non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) across a range of human tissues. This platform facilitates comprehensive analysis of tissue-specific expression profiles, differential expression patterns, and functional genomics, helping to elucidate the roles of miRNAs and ncRNAs in both healthy and diseased conditions.

Dissecting miRNA Function Through Integrative Genomics

The microRNA Body Map is a curated repository of RT-qPCR miRNA expression data and functional annotations, representing a wide array of normal and diseased human tissues. The accompanying expression analysis pipeline enables in-depth exploration of miRNAs according to tissue-specific expression, differential expression across various samples or subsets, and functional annotation.

This pipeline is hierarchically structured, supporting multiple modes of analysis, including sample-centric, pathway-centric, and miRNA-centric views of the data. Key features include identifying stable reference miRNAs for data normalization, uncovering tissue or sample-specific miRNAs, and visualizing expression patterns through clustered heatmaps or ranked expression maps. For datasets with available mRNA expression, functional annotations are integrated using a robust transcriptomics approach.

Additional tools, such as miRNA2function and function2miRNA, allow users to predict miRNA functions or identify miRNAs associated with specific functions of interest. Furthermore, researchers can upload their own gene sets to explore associations with miRNAs across different datasets. To complement functional predictions, the platform offers an in-depth literature mining tool that highlights experimentally validated miRNA functions, drawn directly from PubMed.

The current version of the microRNA Body Map includes data from 992 samples, totaling 309,842 individual data points. More datasets are available upon request, and we encourage the co-submission of mRNA and miRNA expression data for comprehensive functional annotation.

Dissecting ncRNA Function Through Integrative Genomics

The non-coding RNA Body Map serves as a comprehensive repository of RT-qPCR ncRNA expression data and functional annotations for human tissues, both healthy and diseased. Similar to the miRNA platform, this resource includes a structured analysis pipeline for examining ncRNA expression in a variety of contexts, from tissue-specific patterns to differential expression across datasets.

Researchers can leverage features such as tissue or sample-specific ncRNA identification and dynamic expression visualizations through clustered heatmaps and ranked maps. For datasets with mRNA expression, functional annotations are inferred using an integrative transcriptomics approach.

The ncRNA2function and function2ncRNA tools allow users to retrieve predicted ncRNA functions or find ncRNAs associated with particular biological functions. In addition, users can upload their own gene sets and analyze their associations with ncRNAs in multiple datasets. The platform also provides a robust literature mining tool to retrieve experimentally validated ncRNA functions from PubMed, along with relevant result context highlighting.

The current version of the ncRNA Body Map contains expression data from 2,620 samples, representing 9,710,413 individual data points. An overview of all datasets is available on the statistics page, and additional datasets can be uploaded upon request. We also encourage the co-submission of mRNA and ncRNA expression data for enhanced functional annotation.

Developed and hosted at Ghent University, Belgium, the ncRNA Body Map is a powerful tool for researchers aiming to deepen their understanding of non-coding RNA biology.