Expansion of Capsicum annuum fruit is linked to dynamic tissue-specific differential expression of miRNA and siRNA profiles

PLoS One. 2018 Jul 25;13(7):e0200207. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0200207. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Small regulatory RNAs, such as microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) have emerged as important transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulators controlling a wide variety of physiological processes including fruit development. Data are, however, limited for their potential roles in developmental processes determining economically important traits of crops. The current study aimed to discover and characterize differentially expressed miRNAs and siRNAs in sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum) during fruit expansion. High-throughput sequencing was employed to determine the small regulatory RNA expression profiles in various fruit tissues, such as placenta, seed, and flesh at 28 and 40 days after anthesis. Comparative differential expression analyses of conserved, already described and our newly predicted pepper-specific miRNAs revealed that fruit expansion is accompanied by an increasing level of miRNA-mediated regulation of gene expression. Accordingly, ARGONAUTE1 protein, the primary executor of miRNA-mediated regulation, continuously accumulated to an extremely high level in the flesh. We also identified numerous pepper-specific, heterochromatin-associated 24-nt siRNAs (hetsiRNAs) which were extremely abundant in the seeds, as well as 21-nt and 24-nt phased siRNAs (phasiRNAs) that were expressed mainly in the placenta and the seeds. This work provides comprehensive tissue-specific miRNA and siRNA expression landscape for a developing pepper fruit. We identified several novel, abundantly expressing tissue- and pepper-specific small regulatory RNA species. Our data show that fruit expansion is associated with extensive changes in sRNA abundance, raising the possibility that manipulation of sRNA pathways may be employed to improve the quality and quantity of the pepper fruit.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Capsicum / growth & development*
  • Capsicum / metabolism*
  • Computational Biology
  • Fruit / growth & development*
  • Fruit / metabolism*
  • Gene Expression
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Plant
  • MicroRNAs / metabolism*
  • RNA, Small Interfering / metabolism*
  • Seeds / growth & development
  • Seeds / metabolism

Substances

  • MicroRNAs
  • RNA, Small Interfering

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (http://nkfih.gov.hu; NKFI-K109438 and NKFI-K116602 were granted to ZH, NKFI-K119701 was granted to GS). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.