↓ Skip to main content

Endogenous siRNAs and piRNAs derived from transposable elements and genes in the malaria vector mosquito Anopheles gambiae

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Genomics, April 2015
Altmetric Badge

About this Attention Score

  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (78th percentile)
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (79th percentile)

Mentioned by

twitter
10 X users

Citations

dimensions_citation
34 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
80 Mendeley
You are seeing a free-to-access but limited selection of the activity Altmetric has collected about this research output. Click here to find out more.
Title
Endogenous siRNAs and piRNAs derived from transposable elements and genes in the malaria vector mosquito Anopheles gambiae
Published in
BMC Genomics, April 2015
DOI 10.1186/s12864-015-1436-1
Pubmed ID
Authors

Inna Biryukova, Tao Ye

Abstract

The siRNA and piRNA pathways have been shown in insects to be essential for regulation of gene expression and defence against exogenous and endogenous genetic elements (viruses and transposable elements). The vast majority of endogenous small RNAs produced by the siRNA and piRNA pathways originate from repetitive or transposable elements (TE). In D. melanogaster, TE-derived endogenous siRNAs and piRNAs are involved in genome surveillance and maintenance of genome integrity. In the medically relevant malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae TEs constitute 12-16% of the genome size. Genetic variations induced by TE activities are known to shape the genome landscape and to alter the fitness in An. gambiae. Here, using bioinformatics approaches we analyzed the small RNA data sets from 6 libraries formally reported in a previous study and examined the expression of the mixed germline/somatic siRNAs and piRNAs produced in adult An. gambiae females. We characterized a large population of TE-derived endogenous siRNAs and piRNAs, which constitutes 56-60% of the total siRNA and piRNA reads in the analysed libraries. Moreover, we identified a number of protein coding genes producing gene-specific siRNAs and piRNAs that were generally expressed at much lower levels than the TE-associated small RNAs. Detailed sequence analysis revealed that An. gambiae piRNAs were produced by both "ping-pong" dependent (TE-associated piRNAs) and independent mechanisms (genic piRNAs). Similarly to D. melanogaster, more than 90% of the detected piRNAs were produced from TE-associated clusters in An. gambiae. We also found that biotic stress as blood feeding and infection with Plasmodium parasite, the etiological agent of malaria, modulated the expression levels of the endogenous siRNAs and piRNAs in An. gambiae. We identified a large and diverse set of the endogenously derived siRNAs and piRNAs that share common and distinct aspects of small RNA expression across insect species, and inferred their impact on TE and gene activity in An. gambiae. The TE-specific small RNAs produced by both the siRNA and piRNA pathways represent an important aspect of genome stability and genetic variation, which might have a strong impact on the evolution of the genome and vector competence in the malaria mosquitoes.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 10 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 80 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Brazil 3 4%
France 1 1%
United Kingdom 1 1%
Belgium 1 1%
Spain 1 1%
Unknown 73 91%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 18 23%
Researcher 17 21%
Student > Bachelor 8 10%
Student > Master 6 8%
Student > Doctoral Student 4 5%
Other 8 10%
Unknown 19 24%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 30 38%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 16 20%
Computer Science 4 5%
Environmental Science 2 3%
Nursing and Health Professions 1 1%
Other 5 6%
Unknown 22 28%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 7. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 12 June 2015.
All research outputs
#4,426,351
of 22,799,071 outputs
Outputs from BMC Genomics
#1,818
of 10,648 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#56,420
of 264,200 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Genomics
#53
of 260 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,799,071 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 80th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 10,648 research outputs from this source. They receive a mean Attention Score of 4.7. This one has done well, scoring higher than 82% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 264,200 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 78% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 260 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 79% of its contemporaries.