MicroRNA expression prediction: Regression from regulatory elements

MicroRNAs are known as important actors in post-transcriptional regulation and relevant biological processes. Their expression levels do not only provide information about their own activities but also implicitly explain the behaviors of their targets, thus, in turn, the circuitry of underlying gene regulatory network. In this study, we consider the problem of estimating the expression of a newly discovered microRNA with known promoter sequence in a certain condition where the expression values of some known microRNAs are available. To this end, we offer a regression model to be learnt from the expression levels of other microRNAs obtained through a microarray experiment. To our knowledge, this is the first study that evaluates the predictability of microRNA expression from the regulatory elements found in its promoter sequence. The results obtained through the experiments on real microarray data justify the applicability of the framework in practice.