Abstract
miRNAs are important regulators of plant gene expression. To better characterize their functions, we applied high-throughput sequencing and degradome analyses to investigate three blueberry (Vaccinium ashei) tissues. A total of 127 known and 101 novel miRNAs were identified. Moreover, 141 targets for 42 known and 19 novel miRNAs were experimentally validated by degradome sequencing. A functional analysis of these miRNA targets revealed they were associated with diverse biological activities and several pathways, e.g., anthocyanin biosynthesis and cytokinin signal transduction. The data presented herein expand our understanding of the regulation of blueberry miRNAs during floral and fruit development stages. They may also provide new insights into the roles of miRNAs during anthocyanin biosynthesis in blueberry fruits.
Highlights
MiRNAs are important small RNAs that are generated from single-stranded RNA precursors capable of forming hairpin structures. miRNAs can regulate cellular and metabolic processes by binding and cleaving mRNA or suppressing translation [1]
Using next-generation sequencing technology, a total of 412 conserved miRNAs and 35 predicted novel miRNAs have been identified from blueberry fruits [6]
To identify V. ashei miRNAs, all clean sRNAs were compared with known mature plant miRNAs in the miRBase 21 database
Summary
MiRNAs are important small RNAs (sRNAs) that are generated from single-stranded RNA precursors capable of forming hairpin structures. miRNAs can regulate cellular and metabolic processes by binding and cleaving mRNA or suppressing translation [1]. The potential target genes of many of these miRNAs were predicted to be transcription factors and enzymes. They were involved in many important biological processes, such as anthocyanin biosynthesis. It is necessary to further perform a genome-wide experimental validation, which will contribute to a better understanding of the regulation of blueberry miRNAs. More recently, another study contributing to this motivation has been performed [7]. Another study contributing to this motivation has been performed [7] It analyzed fruit ripening-related miRNAs and their targets, and validated 178 targets for 41 known and 7 novel miRNAs based on degradome analyses. It is still insufficient for us to perfectly understand the regulation of blueberry miRNAs based on the amount of known miNRAs identified in a relatively sophisticated plant, Arabidopsis [8]
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