Laboratoire de Reproduction et Développement des Plantes, UMR 5667- CNRS/INRA/Université de Lyon, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, 46, allée d'Italie 69364, Lyon Cedex 07, France.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2010 Feb 12;365(1539):469-76. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2009.0246.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) control many important aspects of plant development, suggesting these molecules may also have played key roles in the evolution of developmental processes in plants. However, evolutionary-developmental (evo-devo) studies of miRNAs have been held back by technical difficulties in gene identification. To help solve this problem, we have developed a two-step procedure for the efficient identification of miRNA genes in any plant species. As a test case, we have studied the evolution of the MIR164 family in the angiosperms. We have identified novel MIR164 genes in three species occupying key phylogenetic positions and used these, together with published sequence data, to partially reconstruct the evolution of the MIR164 family since the last common ancestor of the extant flowering plants. We use our evolutionary reconstruction to discuss potential roles for MIR164 genes in the evolution of leaf shape and carpel closure in the angiosperms. The techniques we describe may be applied to any miRNA family and should thus enable plant evo-devo to begin to investigate the contributions miRNAs have made to the evolution of plant development.
微小 RNA（miRNAs）调控植物发育的许多重要方面，这表明这些分子在植物发育过程的进化中也可能发挥了关键作用。然而，miRNAs 的进化-发育（evo-devo）研究受到基因鉴定技术困难的阻碍。为了帮助解决这个问题，我们开发了一种两步程序，可有效地鉴定任何植物物种中的 miRNA 基因。作为一个测试案例，我们研究了被子植物中 MIR164 家族的进化。我们在三个占据关键进化位置的物种中鉴定了新的 MIR164 基因，并将这些基因与已发表的序列数据一起，部分重建了 MIR164 家族自现存开花植物的最后共同祖先以来的进化历程。我们利用我们的进化重建来讨论 MIR164 基因在被子植物叶片形状和心皮闭合进化中的潜在作用。我们描述的技术可应用于任何 miRNA 家族，因此应该使植物 evo-devo 开始研究 miRNAs 对植物发育进化的贡献。
