The miR-16 microRNA precursor family is a group of related small non-coding RNA genes that regulates gene expression. miR-16, miR-15, mir-195 and miR-497 are related microRNA precursor sequences from the mir-15 gene family ([1]). This microRNA family appears to be vertebrate specific and its members have been predicted or experimentally validated in a wide range of vertebrate species (MIPF0000006).