Table 1.

Overview, in chronological order, of approaches and results of selected miRNA detection studies. Computational and experimental approaches used as well as the total number of predicted candidates and verified miRNAs are indicated for each study.

Reference	Genome(s)	Stem-loop	Homology	Folding	Experimental	Novel candidates	Novel verified
				(free energy)		(comp/exp)	(comp/tot)
Lee and Ambros [7]	C elegans	X	X	X	X	40/38 (only 53 tested)	2/13
Lim et al [31]	C elegans	X	X	—	X	35/NA	16/30
Ambros et al [34]	C elegans	X	X	X	X	407/NA	9/21
Lai et al [32]	D melanogaster	X	X	X	—	166/0 (only 38 tested)	24/24
Pfeffer et al [35]	Epstein-barr virus (EBV)	—	—	—	X	0/NA	5/5
Pfeffer et al [33]	Human cytomegalovirus	X	—	X	X	11/NA	5/9
	(HCMV)*
Grey et al [36]	Human cytomegalovirus	X	X	—	—	10/0	2/2
	(HCMV)

*One selected genome of a range of herpesviruses studied.