High-throughput sequencing and degradome analysis identify miRNAs and their targets involved in fruit senescence of Fragaria ananassa.

In non-climacteric fruits, the respiratory increase is absent and no phytohormone is appearing to be critical for their ripening process. They must remain on the parent plant to enable full ripening and be picked at or near the fully ripe stage to obtain the best eating quality. However, huge losses often occur for their quick post-harvest senescence. To understanding the complex mechanism of non-climacteric fruits post-harvest senescence, we constructed two small RNA libraries and one degradome from strawberry fruit stored at 20°C for 0 and 24 h. A total of 88 known and 1224 new candidate miRNAs, and 103 targets cleaved by 19 known miRNAs families and 55 new candidatemiRNAs were obtained. These targets were associated with development, metabolism, defense response, signaling transduction and transcriptional regulation. Among them, 14 targets, including NAC transcription factor, Auxin response factors (ARF) and Myb transcription factors, cleaved by 6 known miRNA families and 6 predicted candidates, were found to be involved in regulating fruit senescence. The present study provided valuable information for understanding the quick senescence of strawberry fruit, and offered a foundation for studying the miRNA-mediated senescence of non-climacteric fruits.