Non-model organisms are studied very frequently, as a simple accessible and convenient system to investigate the role of miRNAs in particular aspect of biology or disease. However, the unavailability of the annotated genome and hence miRNA database of these non-model organisms pose a major constraint for using them more efficiently. Here, we describe a new method to identify miRNAs in non-model organisms without complex sequencing strategies and using miRNAs from close relative organisms as proxy/reference sequences.
