microRNA-seq of cartilage reveals an over-abundance of miR-140-3p which contains functional isomiRs.

MiR-140 is selectively expressed in cartilage. Deletion of the entire miR-140 locus in mice results in a growth retardation phenotype and an early-onset osteoarthritis-like pathology, however the relative contribution of miR-140-5p or miR-140-3p to the phenotype remains to be determined. An unbiased small RNA sequencing approach identified that miR-140-3p was in vast abundance (>10-fold) to miR-140-5p in human cartilage. Analysis of these data identified multiple miR-140-3p isomiRs differing from the miRBase [1] annotation at both the 5´ and 3´ end, with >99% of miR-140-3p isomiRs having one of two ‘seed’ sequences (5´ bases 2-8). The most abundant isomiR with each seed were selected for further analysis; miR-140-3p.2 which has an identical seed to the miRBase miR-140-3p (ACCACAG) and miR-140-3p.1 which has an altered seed (CCACAGG), and thus different potential targets. Each isomiR was overexpressed in chondrocytes and whole-genome transcriptomics used to identify targets. miR-140-3p.1 and miR-140-3p.2 significantly down-regulated 694 and 238 genes respectively (adj.P.Val<0.05), of which only 162 genes were commonly down-regulated by both isomiRs. Targets of both isomiRs were validated using 3´UTR luciferase assays. A significant enrichment of miR-140-3p.1 targets was identified within genes whose expression increase in the rib chondrocytes of Mir140-null mice and within genes whose expression decreased during human chondrogenesis. Finally, through imputing the expression of miR-140 from the expression of the host gene WWP2 in 124 previously published datasets an inverse correlation with miR-140-3p.1 predicted targets was identified. Together these data suggest the novel seed containing isomiR miR-140-3p.1 is more functional than the original consensus miR-140-3p or the isomiR with the same seed, miR-140-3p.2.