miRNA Nomenclature: A Few Changes

The latest miRBase update to version 17 incorporated also some changes reg. the nomenclature. Sam from miRBase.org did a great job  summarizing the current status as well as the changes they started implementing with version 17. The short version of the changes is:

• The “*” nomenclature will be retired. In fact, for Drosophila it was retired effective this update and the effected sequences were renamed. Instead of “*” the -3p/-5p nomenclature will be used from now on.

• The -as/-s nomenclature was retired.

For the full details and additional recommendations check out Sam’s excellent post: “What’s in a name?“