Dear Shirong,

if for tracing you mean monitoring its expression and activity in vivo, you can use the "negative sensor approach". Originally developed in Drosophila by Steve Cohen's group in Zebrafish by Shier's group and in mice by McMAnus and Tabin..

If instead you mean following a miRNA e.g. moving inside a cell, you can try to label a synthetic miRNA with a fluorescent dye, and follow it by imaging. most of the company that sell mimics gives you the possibility to label them, otherwise there are several kits you can use to add some dye.

I hope It helps, good, luck, D.

see these references (for negative sensor apporach):

1) De Pietri Tonelli D, Calegari F, Fei JF, Nomura T, Osumi N, Heisenberg CP, H. W. Single-cell detection of microRNAs in developing vertebrate embryos after acute administration of a dual-fluorescence reporter/sensor plasmid. Biotechniques. 2006 Dec;41(6):727-32.

2) Mishima Y, Abreu-Goodger C, Staton AA, Stahlhut C, Shou C, Cheng C, Gerstein M, Enright AJ, Giraldez AJ. “Zebrafish miR-1 and miR-133 shape muscle gene expression and regulate sarcomeric actin organization”. Genes Dev. 2009 Mar 1;23(5):619-32. doi: 10.1101/gad.1760209. Epub 2009 Feb 24.

3) Pathania M, Torres-Reveron J, Yan L, Kimura T, Lin TV, Gordon V, Teng ZQ, Zhao X, Fulga TA, Van Vactor D, Bordey A. “miR-132 enhances dendritic morphogenesis, spine density, synaptic integration, and survival of newborn olfactory bulb neurons”. PLoS One. 2012;7(5):e38174. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0038174. Epub 2012 May 31.

Thank you Davide! I am interested in where does the microRNA of interest go. I tried the synthetic miR mimic and it worked. Thank you again for your suggestion!

 Dear Shirong,

I read your article published in cell host & microbe in January 2016. I was very impressed from the data presented and the methods you developed. Is it possible to receive some additional details regarding the extraction of the microRNAs using the mirVana kit? What modifications of the manufacturer protocol did you perform?

Thank you, Edith