Gutiérrez-García Claudia, Ahmed Shiek S S J, Ramalingam Sathishkumar, Selvaraj Dhivya, Srivastava Aashish, Paul Sujay, Sharma Ashutosh
Tecnologico de Monterrey, Centre of Bioengineering, School of Engineering and Sciences, Queretaro CP 76130, Mexico.
Omics and Drug Discovery Lab, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Chettinad Academy of Research and Education, Kelambakkam 603103, India.
Plants (Basel). 2021 Dec 24;11(1):46. doi: 10.3390/plants11010046.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNA molecules that play crucial post-transcriptional regulatory roles in plants, including development and stress-response signaling. However, information about their involvement in secondary metabolism is still limited. is a popular medicinal plant, better known as curry leaves, that possesses pharmaceutically active secondary metabolites. The present study utilized high-throughput sequencing technology to investigate the miRNA profile of and their association with secondary metabolite biosynthesis. A total of 343,505 unique reads with lengths ranging from 16 to 40 nt were obtained from the sequencing data, among which 142 miRNAs were identified as conserved and 7 as novel miRNAs. Moreover, 6078 corresponding potential target genes of miRNAs were recognized in this study. Interestingly, several conserved and novel miRNAs of were found to target key enzymes of the terpenoid backbone and the flavonoid biosynthesis pathways. Furthermore, to validate the sequencing results, the relative expression of eight randomly selected miRNAs was determined by qPCR. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of the miRNA profile that may provide useful information for further elucidation of the involvement of miRNAs in secondary metabolism. These findings might be crucial in the future to generate artificial-miRNA-based, genetically engineered plants for the overproduction of medicinally highly valuable secondary metabolites.
微小RNA（miRNA）是一类小的非编码RNA分子，在植物中发挥着关键的转录后调控作用，包括发育和应激反应信号传导。然而，关于它们参与次生代谢的信息仍然有限。 是一种广为人知的药用植物，俗称咖喱叶，它含有具有药理活性的次生代谢产物。本研究利用高通量测序技术研究了 的miRNA谱及其与次生代谢产物生物合成的关联。从测序数据中总共获得了343,505条长度在16至40 nt之间的独特读段，其中142个miRNA被鉴定为保守型，7个为新型miRNA。此外，本研究还识别出了6078个 miRNA相应的潜在靶基因。有趣的是，发现 的几个保守型和新型miRNA靶向萜类骨架和类黄酮生物合成途径的关键酶。此外，为了验证测序结果，通过qPCR测定了八个随机选择的miRNA的相对表达。据我们所知，这是关于 的miRNA谱的首次报道，可能为进一步阐明miRNA参与次生代谢提供有用信息。这些发现可能对未来培育基于人工miRNA的转基因 植物以过量生产具有高药用价值的次生代谢产物至关重要。
