ABSTRACT
Genomic instability has been observed in many different types of cancers. While genetic alterations often cover a large spectrum of genomic events including gross rearrangement or amplification or deletion of chromosomal regions, some alterations are minimally detectable including small microsatellite or indel mutations and retroviral integration. In fact, the study of events associated with genomic instability has led to the discovery of many new and important genes associated with critical regulatory pathways. More recently, small regulatory RNAs or microRNAs have been found to reside throughout the genome and it has been suggested that such genetic alterations could also target microRNAs. In this chapter we will examine genomic instability that may alter human or mouse microRNA expression and function. Using both computational and experimental approaches, we outline possible associations between regions of genomic instability and novel microRNA candidates or already established and known microRNAs.
