Nearly 90% of genetic variants associated with phenotypes have been described to be located in non-coding regions such as the untranslated regions (UTRs) (Hindorff et al., 2009). Variants, including single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within non-coding regions, can impact gene expression in several ways; one example is by altering the interaction between mRNAs and micro-RNAs (miRNAs). Polymorphisms within miRNA-binding sites have been implicated in diseases such as cancer (Pelletier and Weidhaas, 2010; Iuliano et al., 2013), Alzheimer’s disease (Liu et al., 2017), and diabetes (Elek et al., 2015).
