植物体内调控miRNA合成与功能的机制研究进展

microRNA(miRNA)能够在转录后水平通过剪切或抑制翻译对靶mRNA进行调节,并且广泛参与植物的生长发育、生物胁迫和非生物胁迫等过程,因此引起了众多研究者的关注。随着对miRNA研究的深入,人们发现miRNA从转录到转录后成熟再到行使功能的过程中,会受到很多因子的调控。这些因子可以是蛋白质、核酸序列、基因、甚至miRNA本身,由于这些因子的参与,使得miRNA调节的生物学过程更具复杂性和灵活性。本文从转录、加工、活性调节和反馈调控等层次综述了近年来调控植物miRNA合成与功能方面取得的进展,以期为miRNA调控机制的研究提供理论基础和新思路。     

Plant microRNAs in molecular breeding

MicroRNAs are small, endogenous, non-coding RNAs found in plants, animals, and in some viruses, which negatively regulate the expression of genes by promoting the degradation of target mRNAs or by translation inhibition. Ever since the discovery of miRNAs, its biology, mechanisms, and functions were extensively studied in the past two decades. Plant and animal miRNAs both regulate target mRNAs, but they differ in scope of complementarity to their target mRNA. Plant microRNAs are known to play essential roles in a wide array of plant development. To date, there are many studies giving evidence that the regulation of miRNA levels can reprogram plant responses to abiotic (physical environment) and biotic stresses (pathogen and herbivore). Most of these studies were first carried out in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Recently, the trend of miRNA research is furthering its role in crop breeding and its evolutionary origin. In this review, we presented the dynamic biogenesis of microRNAs, the diverse functions of miRNAs in plants, and experimental designs used in studying microRNAs in plants, and most importantly, we presented the applications of microRNA-based technology to improve the resistance of crops in abiotic and biotic stresses.     

Genome-Wide Identification and Analysis of MicroRNAs Involved in Witches’-Broom Phytoplasma Response in Ziziphus jujuba

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in responding to biotic and abiotic stresses in plants. Jujube witches’-broom a phytoplasma disease of Ziziphus jujuba is prevalent in China and is a serious problem to the industry. However, the molecular mechanism of the disease is poorly understood. In this study, genome-wide identification and analysis of microRNAs in response to witches’-broom was performed. A total of 85 conserved miRNA unique sequences belonging to 32 miRNA families and 24 novel miRNA unique sequences, including their complementary miRNA* strands were identified from small RNA libraries derived from a uninfected and witches’-broom infected Z. jujuba plant. Differentially expressed miRNAs associated with Jujube witches’-broom disease were investigated between the two libraries, and 12 up-regulated miRNAs and 10 down- regulated miRNAs identified with more than 2 fold changes. Additionally, 40 target genes of 85 conserved miRNAs and 49 target genes of 24 novel miRNAs were predicted and their putative functions assigned. Using the modified 5’-RACE method, we confirmed that SPL and MYB were cleaved by miR156 and miR159, respectively. Our results provide insight into the molecular mechanisms of witches’-broom disease in Z. jujuba.     

miR398在植物逆境胁迫应答中的作用

MicroRNA (miRNA)是一类新型的调控基因表达的小分子RNA, 它作为基因表达的负调控因子, 在转录后水平调节靶基因的表达。miRNA参与调控植物的生长发育, 并在多种非生物与生物胁迫响应中发挥重要作用。miR398是第一个被报道的受氧化胁迫负调控的miRNA。它通过负调控其靶基因Cu/Zn过氧化物歧化酶(Cu/Zn-superoxide dismutase, CSD)的表达, 在多种逆境胁迫响应中扮演重要角色, 如调节铜代谢平衡, 应答重金属、蔗糖、臭氧等非生物胁迫, 以及参与应答生物胁迫等。文章综述了miR398在多种逆境胁迫响应中重要的调节作用及miR398自身的转录调控。     

Computational identification of miRNAs in medicinal plant Senecio vulgaris (Groundsel)

RNAs Interference plays a very important role in gene silencing. In vitro identification of miRNAs is a slow process as it is difficult to isolate them. Nucleotide sequences of miRNAs are highly conserved among the plants and, this form the key feature behind the identification of miRNAs in plant species by homology alignment. In silico identification of miRNAs from EST database is emerging as a novel, faster and reliable approach. Here EST sequences of Senecio vulgaris (Groundsel) were searched against known miRNA sequences by using BLASTN tool. A total of 10 miRNAs were identified from 1956 EST sequences and 115 GSS sequences. The most stable miRNA identified is svu-mir-1. This approach will accelerate advance research in regulation of gene expression in Groundsel by interfering RNAs.     

Massive analysis of rice small RNAs: mechanistic implications of regulated microRNAs and variants for differential target RNA cleavage

Small RNAs have a variety of important roles in plant development, stress responses, and other processes. They exert their influence by guiding mRNA cleavage, translational repression, and chromatin modification. To identify previously unknown rice (Oryza sativa) microRNAs (miRNAs) and those regulated by environmental stress, 62 small RNA libraries were constructed from rice plants and used for deep sequencing with Illumina technology. The libraries represent several tissues from control plants and plants subjected to different environmental stress treatments. More than 94 million genome-matched reads were obtained, resulting in more than 16 million distinct small RNA sequences. This allowed an evaluation of ~400 annotated miRNAs with current criteria and the finding that among these, ~150 had small interfering RNA-like characteristics. Seventy-six new miRNAs were found, and miRNAs regulated in response to water stress, nutrient stress, or temperature stress were identified. Among the new examples of miRNA regulation were members of the same miRNA family that were differentially regulated in different organs and had distinct sequences Some of these distinct family members result in differential target cleavage and provide new insight about how an agriculturally important rice phenotype could be regulated in the panicle. This high-resolution analysis of rice miRNAs should be relevant to plant miRNAs in general, particularly in the Poaceae.