Analysis of miRNAs and their targets during adventitious shoot organogenesis of Acacia crassicarpa

PLoS One. 2014 Apr 9;9(4):e93438. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0093438. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Organogenesis is an important process for plant regeneration by tissue or cell mass differentiation to regenerate a complete plant. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an essential role in regulating plant development by mediating target genes at transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels, but the diversity of miRNAs and their potential roles in organogenesis of Acacia crassicarpa have rarely been investigated. In this study, approximately 10 million sequence reads were obtained from a small RNA library, from which 189 conserved miRNAs from 57 miRNA families, and 7 novel miRNAs from 5 families, were identified from A. crassicarpa organogenetic tissues. Target prediction for these miRNAs yielded 237 potentially unique genes, of which 207 received target Gene Ontology annotations. On the basis of a bioinformatic analysis, one novel and 13 conserved miRNAs were selected to investigate their possible roles in A. crassicarpa organogenesis by qRT-PCR. The stage-specific expression patterns of the miRNAs provided information on their possible regulatory functions, including shoot bud formation, modulated function after transfer of the culture to light, and regulatory roles during induction of organogenesis. This study is the first to investigate miRNAs associated with A. crassicarpa organogenesis. The results provide a foundation for further characterization of miRNA expression profiles and roles in the regulation of diverse physiological pathways during adventitious shoot organogenesis of A. crassicarpa.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Acacia / genetics*
  • Acacia / growth & development*
  • Base Sequence
  • Cluster Analysis
  • Conserved Sequence / genetics
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Plant*
  • MicroRNAs / genetics*
  • MicroRNAs / metabolism
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Nucleic Acid Conformation
  • Organogenesis / genetics*
  • Plant Development / genetics
  • Plant Shoots / genetics*
  • Plant Shoots / growth & development
  • Protein Isoforms / genetics
  • Protein Isoforms / metabolism
  • RNA, Plant / chemistry
  • RNA, Plant / genetics
  • RNA, Plant / metabolism
  • Sequence Analysis, RNA

Substances

  • MicroRNAs
  • Protein Isoforms
  • RNA, Plant

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.31070635), Public Welfare Project from Ministry of Agriculture of the People’s Republic of China (No. 201103027), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central University (No.TD2012-03). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.