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Abstract
BackgroundMiRNAs play essential roles in plant development and response to biotic and abiotic stresses through interaction with their target genes. The expression level of miRNAs shows great variations among different plant accessions, developmental stages, and tissues. Little is known about the content within the plant genome contributing to the variations in plants. This study aims to identify miRNA expression-related quantitative trait loci (miR-QTLs) in the maize genome.ResultsThe miRNA expression level from next generation sequencing (NGS) small RNA libraries derived from mature leaf samples of the maize panel (200 maize lines) was estimated as phenotypes, and maize Hapmap v3.2.1 was chosen as the genotype for the genome-wide association study (GWAS). A total of four significant miR-eQTLs were identified contributing to miR156k-5p, miR159a-3p, miR390a-5p and miR396e-5p, and all of them are trans-eQTLs. In addition, a strong positive coexpression of miRNA was found among five miRNA families. Investigation of the effects of these miRNAs on the expression levels and target genes provided evidence that miRNAs control the expression of their targets by suppression and enhancement.ConclusionsThese identified significant miR-eQTLs contribute to the diversity of miRNA expression in the maize penal at the developmental stages of mature leaves in maize, and the positive and negative regulation between miRNA and its target genes has also been uncovered.
Highlights
MiRNAs play essential roles in plant development and response to biotic and abiotic stresses through interaction with their target genes
In maize, many miRNAs and their targets have been identified by computational prediction, such as miRNAs involved in maize kernel development [13, 14] and grain filling stages [15]
The global repression of miRNA expression has been reported in maize hybrid lines, which may be critical for increasing yield [16, 17]
Summary
MiRNAs play essential roles in plant development and response to biotic and abiotic stresses through interaction with their target genes. The mechanisms of miRNA regulating different plant developmental stages have been reported, including (1) posttranscriptional regulation, e.g., miR160 and miR166 regulate the plant height of Gossypium hirsutum through auxin and ABA response factors [9]. An increase in related miRNAs to regulate response genes under biotic and abiotic stresses has been reported [11]. The global repression of miRNA expression has been reported in maize hybrid lines, which may be critical for increasing yield [16, 17]. These reports demonstrate the important function of miRNAs in plants [7]
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