Bioinformatics Approaches for the Identification and Annotation of RNA Editing Sites

ABSTRACT

Post-transcriptional nucleotide sequence modification of transcripts by RNA editing is an important molecular mechanism in the regulation of protein function and is associated with a variety of human disease phenotypes. Identification of RNA editing sites is the basic step for studying RNA editing. Databases and bioinformatics resources are used to annotate and evaluate as well as identify RNA editing sites. No method is free of limitations. Correctly establishing an analytic pipeline and strategic application of both experimental and bioinformatics methods constitute the first step in investigating RNA editing. This review summarizes modern bioinformatics approaches and related resources for RNA editing research.