Functional annotation of the differential miRNAs
In order to analyze the biological function of differential miRNAs, the predicted miRNAs target genes were annotated using gene ontology enrichment (ftp://ftp.ncbi.nih.gov/gene/DATA/gene2go.gz) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of genes and genomes pathway analysis (http://www.genome.jp/kegg). The KEGG analysis provides information on the signal transduction and disease pathway of target genes. This information provides a basis for studying the function and involvement of differential miRNAs in pathways. GO is an internationally standardized gene function classification system. It includes three ontologies that describe the molecular functions of genes, cellular components and the biological processes involved.