Bioinformatic Identification of Potential MicroRNAs and Their Targets in the Lingzhi or Reishi Medicinal Mushroom Ganoderma lucidum (Higher Basidiomycetes)

Int J Med Mushrooms. 2015;17(8):783-97. doi: 10.1615/intjmedmushrooms.v17.i8.80.

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small, endogenous, noncoding RNA molecules that negatively regulate gene expression at the transcriptional or the post-transcriptional level. Although a large number of miRNAs have been identified in many species, especially model plants and animals, miRNAs in fungi remain largely unknown. In this study, based on a database of expressed sequence tags in Ganoderma lucidum, 89 potential miRNAs were identified using computational methods. Real-time polymerase chain reaction analysis of miRNA-like samples prepared from G. lucidum at different development stages revealed that miRNA-like RNAs were differentially expressed in different stages. Furthermore, a total of 28 potential targets were found based on near-perfect or perfect complementarity between the randomly selected 9 miRNA-like RNAs and the target sequences, and potential targets for G. lucidum miRNA-like RNAs were predicted. Finally, we studied the expression pattern of 4 target genes in 3 different development stages of G. lucidum to further understand the mechanism of interaction between miRNA-like RNAs and their target genes. Our analysis paves the way toward identifying fungal miRNA-like RNAs that might be involved in various physiological and cellular differentiation processes.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Binding Sites
  • Computational Biology
  • Inverted Repeat Sequences
  • MicroRNAs / chemistry
  • MicroRNAs / metabolism*
  • Nucleic Acid Conformation
  • RNA, Fungal / metabolism*
  • Reishi / genetics*

Substances

  • MicroRNAs
  • RNA, Fungal