PIWI-interacting RNAs are a class of small RNA (sRNA) distinct from microRNA (miRNA) in sequence length and conservation structure. The recently report indicated that human piRNAs not only expressed in germline but also detected in somatic tissues. They interact with piwi-clade Argonauts (Ago), as well as sequences complement with transposons and target genes to effect epigenetic and post-transcriptional regulation. Additionally, piRNAs are involved in DNA methylation and cancer development. Investigation into the mechanism of piRNAs is an important and rapidly growing issue of research. In this study, we constructed an integrated database, piRNAtarget, for studying the functionality of piRNA and its targets. This database includes a variety of information, such as annotations, sequences, parental genes, targets, expression, mutation and methylation profiles in human piRNAs. We believe that piRNAtarget will contribute to a better understanding of the human piRNA functions. piRNAtarget is freely accessible and available at: http://120.108.102.11/~sophia/piRNAtarget.
['Bing-Rong Jiang', 'Wan-Ye Wu', 'Ching-Hsuan Chien', 'Jeffrey J. P. Tsai', 'Wen-Ling Chan']
piRNAtarget: The Integrated Database for Mining Functionality of piRNA and Its Targets