MicroRNAs are differentially expressed during avian epidermal development.
Post-transcriptional modification (miRNAs) of β-keratins provides a mechanism for understanding the differences between mRNA expression data and the protein analysis data.
The miRNA targeting of three major functional categories (cell signaling, cell adhesion and structural genes) of feather development genes indicates that miRNAs have had a diverse and important role in the evolution of feathers.