Fig. 1

Flow chart of ceRNA regulatory network construction. First, Arraystar Human LncRNA Expression Array V4.0 and the Whole Human miRNA microarray were used to detect differentially expressed lncRNAs, miRNAs, and mRNAs. Second, 4 odontogenesis-related mRNAs were screened by literature. Third, target mRNAs of miRNAs were predicted using TargetScan and miRanda, and target lncRNAs of differentially expressed miRNAs were predicted using miRcode. Then, differentially expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs were merged with the target lncRNAs and mRNAs of differentially expressed miRNAs, respectively. The co-expression lncRNAs and mRNAs were selected (fold change > 2 and P < 0.05). Finally, the differentially expressed miRNAs, co-expression lncRNAs, and mRNAs were mapped into the interactions. DERNAs, differentially expressed RNAs; ceRNA, competitive endogenous RNA; lncRNA, long noncoding RNA; miRNA, microRNA; mRNA, messenger RNA