Han J, Kong M L, Xie H, Sun Q P, Nan Z J, Zhang Q Z, Pan J B
Beijing Key Laboratory for Agricultural Application and New Technique, College of Plant Science and Technology, Beijing University of Agriculture, Beijing, China
Genet Mol Res. 2013 Sep 19;12(3):3793-805. doi: 10.4238/2013.September.19.11.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a newly discovered class of noncoding small RNAs that regulate gene expression by directing target mRNA cleavage or translational inhibition. A large number of miRNAs have been identified in plants. Increasing evidence has shown that miRNAs play multiple roles in plant biological processes. So far, identification of miRNAs has been limited to a few model plant species, whose genomes have been sequenced. Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the most important cereal crops worldwide. To date, only a few conserved miRNAs have been predicted in wheat. Here, we showed the conserved miRNAs identified in wheat by expressed sequence tag (EST) analysis. All previously known miRNAs from Arabidopsis, rice, and other plant species were used in a BLAST search against the wheat EST database to identify novel wheat miRNAs by a series of filtering criteria. By this strategy, we identified 62 conserved miRNAs, belonging to 30 miRNA families, 48 of which were newly discovered in wheat. These newly identified wheat miRNAs may regulate 287 potential targets, which are involved in development, signal transduction, metabolic pathways, disease resistance, ion transportation, and environmental stress response.
微小RNA（miRNA）是一类新发现的非编码小RNA，通过指导靶mRNA切割或翻译抑制来调控基因表达。在植物中已鉴定出大量的miRNA。越来越多的证据表明，miRNA在植物生物学过程中发挥多种作用。到目前为止，miRNA的鉴定仅限于少数几种基因组已测序的模式植物物种。小麦（Triticum aestivum L.）是全球最重要的谷类作物之一。迄今为止，在小麦中仅预测到少数保守的miRNA。在此，我们展示了通过表达序列标签（EST）分析在小麦中鉴定出的保守miRNA。将拟南芥、水稻和其他植物物种中所有先前已知的miRNA用于对小麦EST数据库进行BLAST搜索，通过一系列筛选标准来鉴定新的小麦miRNA。通过该策略，我们鉴定出62个保守的miRNA，属于30个miRNA家族，其中48个是在小麦中首次发现的。这些新鉴定出的小麦miRNA可能调控287个潜在靶标，这些靶标涉及发育、信号转导、代谢途径、抗病性、离子运输和环境胁迫响应。
