Bioinformatic Prediction of microRNAs and Their Target Genes in Maize

Abstract

microRNAs(miRNAs) are an extensive class of endogenous,non-coding,short(19–24 nt) RNA molecules directly involved in regulating gene expression at the post-transcriptional level and played an important role in gene expression regulation.Previous reports have noted that plant miRNAs are highly conserved,which provides the foundation for identification of miRNAs in plant species through homology alignment.With the method of bioinformatic computation,all previously known miRNAs in Arabidopsis,rice,and other plant species were blasted against maize EST(expressed sequence tags) and GSS(genomic survey sequence) sequences to select novel miRNAs in maize by a series of filtering criteria.A total of 23 conserved miRNAs were identified and predicted the target genes by a web-based integrated computing system,WMD 3.Total of 89 miRNA targets were predicted and verified to be involved in maize growth and development,signal transduction,transcriptional regulation,metabolism,and stress responses.