vHoT: a database for predicting interspecies interactions between viral microRNA and host genomes

Abstract

Some viruses have been reported to transcribe microRNAs, implying complex relationships between the host and the pathogen at the post-transcriptional level through microRNAs in virus-infected cells. Although many computational algorithms have been developed for microRNA target prediction, few have been designed exclusively to find cellular or viral mRNA targets of viral microRNAs in a user-friendly manner. To address this, we introduce the viral microRNA host target (vHoT) database for predicting interspecies interactions between viral microRNA and host genomes. vHoT supports target prediction of 271 viral microRNAs from human, mouse, rat, rhesus monkey, cow, and virus genomes. vHoT is freely available at http://dna.korea.ac.kr/vhot.