Functional microRNA screening using a comprehensive lentiviral human microRNA expression library.

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small regulatory RNAs that target sequences in messenger RNAs (mRNAs) to inhibit their protein output. Dissecting the complexities of miRNA function continues to prove challenging as miRNAs are predicted to have thousands of targets, and mRNAs can be targeted by dozens of miRNAs.

Results: To systematically address biological function of miRNAs, we constructed and validated a lentiviral miRNA expression library containing 660 currently annotated and 422 candidate human miRNA precursors.