Abstract
Thrips palmi Karny (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) is the sole vector of Watermelon bud necrosis tospovirus, where the crop loss has been estimated to be around USD 50 million annually. Chemical insecticides are of limited use in the management of T. palmi due to the thigmokinetic behaviour and development of high levels of resistance to insecticides. There is an urgent need to find out an effective futuristic management strategy, where the small RNAs especially microRNAs hold great promise as a key player in the growth and development. miRNAs are a class of short non-coding RNAs involved in regulation of gene expression either by mRNA cleavage or by translational repression. We identified and characterized a total of 77 miRNAs from T. palmi using high-throughput deep sequencing. Functional classifications of the targets for these miRNAs revealed that majority of them are involved in the regulation of transcription and translation, nucleotide binding and signal transduction. We have also validated few of these miRNAs employing stem-loop RT-PCR, qRT-PCR and Northern blot. The present study not only provides an in-depth understanding of the biological and physiological roles of miRNAs in governing gene expression but may also lead as an invaluable tool for the management of thysanopteran insects in the future.
Highlights
MicroRNAs are a family of small (~18–25 nucleotides), endogenously initiated, non-coding RNAs that primarily regulate gene expression in animals, plants and protozoan in a sequence-specific manner
We obtained a dataset of about 14 million reads from the pooled T. palmi small RNA library sequenced on Illumina Generation Sequencing platform
A small portion (
Summary
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a family of small (~18–25 nucleotides (nts)), endogenously initiated, non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) that primarily regulate gene expression in animals, plants and protozoan in a sequence-specific manner. Approximately 60% of proteincoding gene activities are under the control of miRNAs and they regulate almost every cellular process investigated [1,2]. MiRNAs can regulate gene expression either by translation repression or by degradation of mRNA through deadenylation [3]. The second to seventh nucleotides in the 5' end of the miRNA form the “seed” region that provides the most of the pairing specificity [4,5]. MiRNA-mediated regulation plays a key role in cellular and developmental. The second to seventh nucleotides in the 5' end of the miRNA form the “seed” region that provides the most of the pairing specificity [4,5]. miRNA-mediated regulation plays a key role in cellular and developmental
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