Abstract
BackgroundPlants contain significant quantities of small RNAs (sRNAs) derived from various sRNA biogenesis pathways. Many of these sRNAs play regulatory roles in plants. Previous analysis revealed that numerous sRNAs in corn, rice and soybean seeds have high sequence similarity to animal genes. However, exogenous RNA is considered to be unstable within the gastrointestinal tract of many animals, thus limiting potential for any adverse effects from consumption of dietary RNA. A recent paper reported that putative plant miRNAs were detected in animal plasma and serum, presumably acquired through ingestion, and may have a functional impact in the consuming organisms.ResultsTo address the question of how common this phenomenon could be, we searched for plant miRNAs sequences in public sRNA datasets from various tissues of mammals, chicken and insects. Our analyses revealed that plant miRNAs were present in the animal sRNA datasets, and significantly miR168 was extremely over-represented. Furthermore, all or nearly all (>96%) miR168 sequences were monocot derived for most datasets, including datasets for two insects reared on dicot plants in their respective experiments. To investigate if plant-derived miRNAs, including miR168, could accumulate and move systemically in insects, we conducted insect feeding studies for three insects including corn rootworm, which has been shown to be responsive to plant-produced long double-stranded RNAs.ConclusionsOur analyses suggest that the observed plant miRNAs in animal sRNA datasets can originate in the process of sequencing, and that accumulation of plant miRNAs via dietary exposure is not universal in animals.
Highlights
Plants contain significant quantities of small RNAs derived from various Small RNA (sRNA) biogenesis pathways
Computational analysis of animal public sRNA datasets identified plant derived miRNAs We examined the prevalence of identifiable plant miRNAs in sRNA datasets derived from various animal sources with different sampling techniques and experimental and analytical methodologies
2016 out of 3,989,601 raw reads from SRR042446 match to plant miRNAs, while none were observed in 9,669,987 reads from SRR042447
Summary
Plants contain significant quantities of small RNAs (sRNAs) derived from various sRNA biogenesis pathways. Plant tissues contain significant quantities of sRNAs [1], which are usually processed from long double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) precursors by RNase III enzymes. These sRNAs can be divided into two major categories: small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs). Animals are exposed to considerable amount of RNA including sRNAs. Given the diverse number of sequences present in sRNA populations, complementary matches to transcripts in animal consumers are readily identifiable [1]. Given the diverse number of sequences present in sRNA populations, complementary matches to transcripts in animal consumers are readily identifiable [1] Such complementary sRNAs are unlikely to be involved in heterologous regulation of gene expression in animals. Delivery of oligonucleotide therapeutics does not occur orally but is administered locally or systemically with the use of specialized lipophilic delivery vehicles and synthetic modifications to native RNA structure
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