Abstract
BackgroundOsmanthus fragrans is an important economical plant containing multiple secondary metabolites including flavonoids and anthocyanins. During the past years, the roles of miRNAs in regulating the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites in plants have been widely investigated. However, few studies on miRNA expression profiles and the potential roles in regulating flavonoid biosynthesis have been reported in O. fragrans.ResultsIn this study, we used high-throughput sequencing technology to analyze the expression profiles of miRNAs in leaf and flower tissues of O. fragrans. As a result, 106 conserved miRNAs distributed in 47 families and 88 novel miRNAs were identified. Further analysis showed there were 133 miRNAs differentially expressed in leaves and flowers. Additionally, the potential target genes of miRNAs as well as the related metabolic pathways were predicted. In the end, flavonoid content was measured in flower and leaf tissues and potential role of miR858 in regulating flavonoid synthesis was illustrated in O. fragrans.ConclusionsThis study not only provided the genome-wide miRNA profiles in the flower and leaf tissue of O. fragrans, but also investigated the potential regulatory role of miR858a in flavonoid synthesis in O. fragrans. The results specifically indicated the connection of miRNAs to the regulation of secondary metabolite biosynthesis in non-model economical plant.
Highlights
Osmanthus fragrans is an important economical plant containing multiple secondary metabolites including flavonoids and anthocyanins
Sequence analysis of O. fragrans sRNA libraries To obtain the RNA sequencing data for identification of the conserved and novel miRNAs in O. fragrans, total RNA was firstly extracted from flower and leaf tissues and cDNA libraries were independently generated for sequencing measurement
Since the differential accumulation of flavonoids in flower and leave tissues was mainly regulated by the key genes in flavonoid metabolism pathway, we further investigated whether the identified miRNAs have effect on the functions of these genes in O. fragrans
Summary
Osmanthus fragrans is an important economical plant containing multiple secondary metabolites including flavonoids and anthocyanins. The roles of miRNAs in regulating the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites in plants have been widely investigated. Few studies on miRNA expression profiles and the potential roles in regulating flavonoid biosynthesis have been reported in O. fragrans. MiRNAs post-transcriptionally regulate gene expression through either the mediation of target mRNAs degradation or the inhibition of target mRNAs translation. It is well known that miRNAs binds to RNAinduced silencing complex (RISC), where the target mRNA degradation is catalyzed [1, 2]. To target mRNA for degradation, miRNAs and their target genes are nearly perfectly complementary pairing [3]. In former studies from other groups, the roles of miRNAs in plant development have been well illustrated. MiRNAs participate in the regulation of numerous biological processes, such as cell proliferation, leaf and root development, phase transition [4,5,6]
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