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Human microRNAs (miRNAs) are potent regulators of gene expression and thus involved in a broad range of biological processes. The objective of this study was to update the properties of human miRNAs and to search for SNPs and CNVs with potential effects on them. Based on the miRBase 13.0 database, we identified 380 (53.9%) precursor miRNAs (pre-miRNAs) embedded in gene loci that are enriched in biological processes such as “Neuronal activities”, “Cell Cycle” and “Protein phosphorylation” (Bonferroni p < 0.05). Gene lengths of the pre-miRNA host genes are significantly larger than other genes in the genome (p < 2.2E-16). Using data mining public resources, we performed a genome-scale search for the regulatory polymorphisms in the loci of pre-miRNAs and their related genes. Altogether, we found 187 SNPs in the pre-miRNAs, 497 consensus SNPs in the seed-matching untranslated regions of …