Figure 3

Predicted interaction between prognostic lung cancer genes and deregulated lung tumor miRNAs. MiRNAs specifically disrupted in CS, FS, or NS tumors as well as miRNAs frequently disrupted across the groups were inputted into mirDIP to identify their predicted gene targets. The network of identified miRNA-mRNA interactions was then generated and visualized using NAViGaTOR, but was restricted to predicted target genes that are known to have prognostic significance in lung cancer. MiRNAs specifically deregulated in a single smoking group are indicated by colored square nodes. MiRNAs disrupted in multiple groups are indicated by white square nodes. Connections for miRNAs commonly disrupted among the smoking groups are indicated by grey edges, while blue, green and red edges indicate miRNA-mRNA interactions specific to CST, FST, and NST, respectively. Predicted targets are depicted as circular nodes, with shading corresponding to Gene Ontology terms associated with gene function. The degree of connectivity for gene targets is depicted by the target node size, where larger circular nodes indicate genes targeted by a greater number of different miRNAs. In total, the network is comprised of 75 miRNAs and 385 prognostic target genes. Most miRNAs are well connected to prognostic genes, with more connections for CST- and FST-specific miRNAs and fewer connections for NST-specific miRNAs. MiR-372, miR-607, and miR-543 were among the miRNAs most highly connected to lung cancer prognostic gene targets.