Thesis Defense Announcement
To:  The George Mason University Community

*Candidate: Naga **Sridhar **Betrapally
Program: Master of Science in Bioinformatics & Computational Biology 
*
*Date:   Thursday August 9, 2012
Time:   12:00 Noon
Place:  George Mason University 
	    Occoquan Bldg., Room 110-A
	    Prince William campus <http://www.gmu.edu/resources/welcome/Directions-to-GMU.html>
	
 
*Thesis Chair: Dr. Donald Seto

*Title:** "Computational Analysis of Bovine miRNAs Across Different Tissues and Species"*

A copy of the thesis is on reserve in the Johnson Center Library, 
Fairfax campus.  The thesis will not be read at the meeting, but should 
be read in advance. All members of the George Mason University community 
are invited to attend.

ABSTRACT:*
*MicroRNA's (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules of approximately 
22 nucleotides in length. They are present in the genome-encoded 
stem-loop precursors that recognize target mRNAs by base pairing which 
then regulate their expression. Due to their influence in expression of 
hundreds of genes, they play a role in regulation of gene expression for 
numerous biological processes such as in animal development, apoptosis, 
fat metabolism and hematopoietic differentiation.  Initial studies 
showed that most miRNAs are conserved among related species. However, 
recent studies have shown that newly identified miRNAs tend to be 
species specific. miRNAs are known to have a differential expression 
patterns during development and across tissues but there is not much 
known about the relative abundance and specificity of expression 
patterns among tissues for most bovine miRNAs. Profiling of bovine 
miRNAs and evaluation of their expression patterns was carried out in 
this study for a total of 64 different tissues from calf and fetus of 
bovine. Interpreting the expression patterns of different miRNAs among 
different tissues and organ systems will help in understanding the role 
of miRNAs in gene expression.

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