Peripheral nerve injures are quite common in clinical practice and many studies have been conducted on their molecular mechanisms.It is a relatively recent innovation to look for these molecular mechanisms in microRNAs (miRNAs).This paper focuses on the identification and function analysis of novel miRNAs in rat dorsal root ganglia (DRGs) following sciatic nerve resection, which is a classic model for studying peripheral nerve injures and regeneration.Using Solexa sequencing, computational analysis and Q-PCR verification, 114 novel miRNAs in rats were discovered and identified, of which 51 novel miRNAs were first reported in rat DRGs and 63 novel miRNAs were produced at days 1, 4, 7 and 14 after sciatic nerve resection.We further predicted target genes of these miRNAs and analyzed functional annotation of target genes.These data provide an important resource for the future analysis of function and regulation of miRNA, and contributes to further studies on the molecular mechanism relating to peripheral nerve injury and regeneration.