Figure 2.

Most of the identified miRNAs have shared targets. (a) The Venn diagram shows the number of miRNAs identified for each category of genes and the number of shared miRNAs between groups. (b) The radar chart illustrates the 59 miRNAs with at least one target gene in each group of genes. The circular lines represent the number of target genes that a miRNA is predicted to target in each category. T_EFF cells have fragmented mitochondria that utilize glycolytic metabolism, while T_N and T_M cells have fused mitochondria which use OXPHOS to generate ATP. Therefore, miRNAs that target glycolytic enzymes might be under‐expressed in T_EFF cells. To determine this, we looked at the miRNA profile expressed during T_N → T_EFF → T_M stages of development based on published data. ⁷⁵ , ⁷⁹ , ¹¹⁵ A comparison of our identified miRNAs with the miRNA expression profile of each T cell subset found 12 miRNAs that are expressed at a low level in T_EFF cells, whilst being upregulated in T_M cells. These miRNAs have several targets among genes involved in glucose uptake, glycolysis and mitochondrial fission (Table 1).