Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA.
Genomics. 2011 Dec;98(6):460-8. doi: 10.1016/j.ygeno.2011.08.005. Epub 2011 Aug 31.
Sweet Sorghum is largely grown for grain production but also recently emerged as one of the model feedstock plants for biofuel production. In plants, microRNA (miRNA)-guided gene regulation plays a key role in diverse biological processes, thus, their identification in different plant species is essential to understand post-transcriptional gene regulation. To identify miRNAs in Sorghum, we sequenced a small RNA library. Sequence analysis revealed the identity of 29 conserved miRNA families. Importantly, 13 novel miRNAs are identified, seven of which are conserved in closely related monocots. Temporal expression analysis of conserved and novel miRNAs indicated differential expression of several miRNAs. Approximately 125 genes that play diverse roles have been predicted as targets and a few targets were experimentally validated. These results provided insights into miRNA-controlled processes in Sorghum and also laid the foundation for manipulating miRNAs or their targets for improving biomass production and stress tolerance in Sorghum.
甜高粱主要用于谷物生产，但最近也成为生物燃料生产的模式饲料植物之一。在植物中，microRNA（miRNA）指导的基因调控在多种生物过程中起着关键作用，因此，在不同的植物物种中识别 miRNA 对于理解转录后基因调控至关重要。为了鉴定高粱中的 miRNA，我们对一个小 RNA 文库进行了测序。序列分析揭示了 29 个保守 miRNA 家族的身份。重要的是，鉴定出了 13 个新的 miRNA，其中 7 个在亲缘关系密切的单子叶植物中保守。保守和新 miRNA 的时间表达分析表明，几个 miRNA 的表达存在差异。大约 125 个具有不同作用的基因被预测为靶基因，其中一些靶基因已经过实验验证。这些结果为高粱中 miRNA 控制的过程提供了深入的了解，也为操纵 miRNA 或其靶基因以提高高粱的生物量生产和抗逆性奠定了基础。
