However, this comparison among places is arguably made easier also because we only require complementarity — marginal gains in variation — rather than total amounts.
MiRNAs canonically recognize targets in 3′UTRs via Watson-Crick base pairing, requiring complementarity with as few as six consecutive nucleotides between the 5′end of a mature miRNAs and the 3′UTR of a target transcript [ 7].
The outcome of the reuse of the binding pocket by multiple distinct binding partners and the required complementarity between binding peptide and the binding pocket results in the repeated patterns that we refer to as motifs.
One such prediction algorithm, TargetScan requires perfect complementarity to the seed region of miRNA and extends these regions to account for complementarity outside the region.
Previous in vitro assays suggest that the MIWI catalytic activity requires continuous complementarity of ≥ 20 nt between piRNA and target.
As targeting only requires partial complementarity, a single miRNA can bind multiple mRNA transcripts and each mRNA can be bound to multiple miRNAs.
MicroCosm Targets (formerly miRBase Targets) uses the miRanda algorithm to identify potential targets, and requires strict complementarity at the seed region as well as 3′UTR site conservation.
A lack of cleavage for siLuc_mm is expected based on the known slicer mechanism of Ago2, which requires perfect complementarity at the targeted bond (Wang et al., 2008).
To increase the signal-to-noise ratio, TargetScan requires strict complementarity between the seed region of the microRNA and the predicted target.
The large number of targets regulated by a single miRNA is due to their imperfect target recognition, often only requiring partial complementarity in the seed sequence (positions 2 8 at the 5′ end).
