The miRBase Sequence Database -- Release 23 (Aug 2026)
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1. SUMMARY
The miRBase database provides a searchable online repository for
published microRNA sequences and associated annotation. miRBase also
provides a gene naming and nomenclature function.
Release 23 of the database contains 47192 entries representing hairpin
precursor miRNAs, expressing 69020 mature miRNA products, in 318
species. The data are freely available to all through the web
interface at http://www.mirbase.org/.
2. CHANGES SINCE RELEASE 22
8847 new hairpin sequences and 27005 new mature products have been
added. The first miRNAs in 47 new species are reported.
20514 mature sequences have had their names clarified, usually upon
the addition of a 2nd mature product from the same locus. For example,
hsa-miR-107 is renamed to hsa-miR-107-3p on the addition of
hsa-miR-107-5p to the database.
The sequences of 9091 mature products have changed, the overwhelming
number of which have had their 5' or 3' ends adjusted based on large
scale small RNA deep sequencing data.
244 misannotated hairpin sequences, and 361 mature sequences sequences
have been deleted from the database.
See the miRNA.diff file for the full description of changes.
3. FILES
The following files are available for download from the website:
hairpin.fa - predicted miR stem-loop sequences in fasta format
mature.fa - mature sequences in fasta format
miRNA.dead - entries removed from the database
miRNA.diff - differences between the current and last release
The genomes/ directory contains gff files of genome coordinates for 31
species. See the individual files for the genome assemblies used.
4. LICENSE
miRBase is in the public domain. It is not copyrighted. You may
freely modify, redistribute, or use it for any purpose. See
https://mirbase.org/download/LICENSE for details.
5. HOW TO CITE THE miRNA DATABASE
The miRBase database is described in the following articles:
miRBase: from microRNA sequences to function.
Kozomara A, Birgaoanu M, Griffiths-Jones S.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2019 47:D155-D162
https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nar/gky1141
miRBase: annotating high confidence microRNAs using deep sequencing
data.
Kozomara A, Griffiths-Jones S.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2014 42:D68-D73
https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkt1181
miRBase: integrating microRNA annotation and deep-sequencing data.
Kozomara A, Griffiths-Jones S.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2011 39:D152-D157
miRBase: tools for microRNA genomics.
Griffiths-Jones S, Saini HK, van Dongen S, Enright AJ.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2008 36:D154-D158
miRBase: microRNA sequences, targets and gene nomenclature.
Griffiths-Jones S, Grocock RJ, van Dongen S, Bateman A, Enright AJ.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2006 34:D140-D144
The miRNA Registry.
Griffiths-Jones S.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2004 32:D109-D111
Please cite us if you use the data we distribute, but also be sure to
cite the primary sources of miRNA sequences in your work.
Guidelines to miRNA annotation are published here:
A uniform system for microRNA annotation.
Ambros V, Bartel B, Bartel DP, Burge CB, Carrington JC, Chen X,
Dreyfuss G, Eddy SR, Griffiths-Jones S, Marshall M, Matzke M,
Ruvkun G, Tuschl T.
RNA 2003 9(3):277-279
Criteria for annotation of plant MicroRNAs.
Meyers BC, Axtell MJ, Bartel B, Bartel DP, Baulcombe D, Bowman JL, Cao
X, Carrington JC, Chen X, Green PJ, Griffiths-Jones S, Jacobsen SE,
Mallory AC, Martienssen RA, Poethig RS, Qi Y, Vaucheret H, Voinnet O,
Watanabe Y, Weigel D, Zhu JK.
Plant Cell. 2008 20(12):3186-3190
6. FEEDBACK
Any queries about data, web services, naming requests or other
feedback should be directed to mirbase@gmail.com.
7. HISTORY
Version Date Entries
1.0 12/02 218
1.1 01/03 262
1.2 04/03 295
1.3 05/03 332
1.4 07/03 345
2.0 07/03 506
2.1 09/03 558
2.2 11/03 593
3.0 01/04 719
3.1 04/04 899
4.0 07/04 1185
5.0 09/04 1345
5.1 12/04 1420
6.0 04/05 1650
7.0 06/05 2909
7.1 10/05 3424
8.0 02/06 3518
8.1 05/06 3963
8.2 07/06 4039
9.0 10/06 4361
9.1 02/07 4449
9.2 05/07 4584
10.0 08/07 5071
10.1 12/07 5395
11.0 04/08 6396
12.0 09/08 8619
13.0 03/09 9539
14 09/09 10883
15 04/10 14197
16 08/10 15172
17 04/11 16772
18 11/11 18226
19 08/12 21264
20 06/13 24521
21 06/14 28645
22 03/18 38589
22.1 10/19 38589
22.2 11/21 38589
23 08/26 47192
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SGJ