Role of miRNAs and siRNAs in biotic and abiotic stress responses of plants

Small, non-coding RNAs are a distinct class of regulatory RNAs in plants and animals that control a variety of biological processes. In plants, several classes of small RNAs with specific sizes and dedicated functions have evolved through a series of pathways. The major classes of small RNAs include microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), which differ in their biogenesis. miRNAs control the expression of cognate target genes by binding to reverse complementary sequences, resulting in cleavage or translational inhibition of the target RNAs. siRNAs have a similar structure, function, and biogenesis as miRNAs but are derived from long double-stranded RNAs and can often direct DNA methylation at target sequences. Besides their roles in growth and development and maintenance of genome integrity, small RNAs are also important components in plant stress responses. One way in which plants respond to environmental stress is by modifying their gene expression through the activity of small RNAs. Thus, understanding how small RNAs regulate gene expression will enable researchers to explore the role of small RNAs in biotic and abiotic stress responses. This review focuses on the regulatory roles of plant small RNAs in the adaptive response to stresses. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Plant gene regulation in response to abiotic stress.     

Conservation and divergence in plant microRNAs

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small, non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression in eukaryotic cells. The past decade has seen an explosion in our understanding of the sets of miRNA genes encoded in the genomes in different species of plants and the mechanisms by which miRNAs interact with target RNAs. A subset of miRNA families (and their binding sites in target RNAs) are conserved between angiosperms and basal plants, suggesting they predate the divergence of existing lineages of plants. However, the majority of miRNA families expressed by any given plant species have a narrow phylogenetic distribution. As a group, these "young" miRNAs genes appear to be evolutionarily fluid and lack clearly understood biological function. The goal of this review is to summarize our understanding of the sets of miRNA genes and miRNA targets that exist in various plant species and to discuss hypotheses that explain the patterns of conservation and divergence observed among microRNAs in plants.     

Computational identification of citrus microRNAs and target analysis in citrus expressed sequence tags

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a new family of small RNA molecules found in plants and animals. We developed a comprehensive strategy for identifying new miRNA homologues by mining the repository of available citrus expressed sequence tags (ESTs). By adopting a range of filtering criteria, we identified a total of 38 potential miRNAs--nine, five, nine and 15 miRNAs in Citrus trifoliata (ctr-miRNAs), C. clementina (ccl-miRNAs), C. reticulata (crt-miRNAs) and C. sinensis (csi-miRNAs), respectively--from more than 430,000 EST sequences in citrus. Using the potential miRNA sequences, we conducted a further BLAST search of the mRNA database and found six potential target genes in these citrus species. Eight miRNAs were selected in order to verify their existence in citrus using Northern blotting, and the functions of several miRNAs in miRNA-mediated gene regulation are experimentally suggested. It appears that all these miRNAs regulate expression of their target genes by cleavage, which is the most common situation in gene regulation mediated by plant miRNAs. Our achievement in identifying new miRNAs in citrus provides a powerful incentive for further studies on the important roles of these miRNAs.     

microPrimer: the biogenesis and function of microRNA

Discovered in nematodes in 1993, microRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding RNAs that are related to small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), the small RNAs that guide RNA interference (RNAi). miRNAs sculpt gene expression profiles during plant and animal development. In fact, miRNAs may regulate as many as one-third of human genes. miRNAs are found only in plants and animals, and in the viruses that infect them. miRNAs function very much like siRNAs, but these two types of small RNAs can be distinguished by their distinct pathways for maturation and by the logic by which they regulate gene expression.     

Identification of conserved microRNAs and their target genes in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum)

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of non-coding RNAs that have important gene regulation roles in various organisms. To date, a total of 1279 plant miRNAs have been deposited in the miRNA miRBase database (Release 10.1). Many of them are conserved during the evolution of land plants suggesting that the well-conserved miRNAs may also retain homologous target interactions. Recently, little is known about the experimental or computational identification of conserved miRNAs and their target genes in tomato. Here, using a computational homology search approach, 21 conserved miRNAs were detected in the Expressed Sequence Tags (EST) and Genomic Survey Sequence (GSS) databases. Following this, 57 potential target genes were predicted by searching the mRNA database. Most of the target mRNAs appeared to be involved in plant growth and development. Our findings verified that the well-conserved tomato miRNAs have retained homologous target interactions amongst divergent plant species. Some miRNAs express diverse combinations in different cell types and have been shown to regulate cell-specific target genes coordinately. We believe that the targeting propensity for genes in different biological processes can be explained largely by their protein connectivity.     

MicroRNA-181a modulates gene expression of zinc finger family members by directly targeting their coding regions

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small endogenous, non-coding RNAs that specifically bind to the 3′ untranslated region (3′UTR) of target genes in animals. However, some recent studies have demonstrated that miRNAs also target the coding regions of mammalian genes. Here, we show that miRNA-181a downregulates the expression of a large number of zinc finger genes (ZNFs). Bioinformatics analysis revealed that these ZNFs contain many miR-181a seed-matched sites within their coding sequences (CDS). In particular, miR-181a 8-mer-matched sequences were mostly localized to the regions coding for the ZNF C2H2 domain. A series of reporter assays confirmed that miR-181a inhibits the expression of ZNFs by directly targeting their CDS. These inhibitory effects might be due to the multiple target sites located within the ZNF genes. In conclusion, our findings indicate that some miRNA species may regulate gene family by targeting their coding regions, thus providing an important and novel perspective for decoding the complex mechanism of miRNA/mRNA interplay.     

玉米microRNAs及其靶基因的生物信息学预测

microRNAs (miRNAs) 是一类非编码的小分子RNA, 通过碱基互补调控靶基因的表达。鉴定和发现新的miRNAs及其靶基因, 对揭示miRNAs在基因表达调控中的作用至关重要。玉米全基因组测序工作开展较晚, 已经鉴定登记的miRNAs很少, 对靶基因的调控作用尚待解明。文章根据miRNA进化上的保守性, 以已知的植物miRNAs为探针, 与相关数据库中玉米表达序列标签(EST)和基因组序列(GSS)中的非编码序列比对, 共发现11个新的miRNA前体。虽然在序列长度和二级结构方面各有变化, 但这11个前体均可折叠形成miRNA家族的标准二级结构。通过靶基因预测, 找到其中7条miRNAs的26个靶基因, 分别编码与新陈代谢、信号转导、转录调节、跨膜运输、生物和非生物胁迫及叶绿体组装等相关的蛋白。这些miRNAs及其靶基因的鉴定, 补充了miRNA数据库的不足。     

果蝇miRNA的结构与功能及研究策略

miRNA是一类在动植物基因组中广泛存在的小分子非编码RNA, 作为真核细胞转录后水平上基因表达的关键调控者, 它通过与靶基因mRNA的特定位点结合, 抑制mRNA的翻译或诱导mRNA的降解, 从而介导生物体的许多重要生理活动。本文简要总结了模式昆虫黑腹果蝇Drosophila melanogaster miRNA的鉴定情况, 综述了miRNA的结构特征、生物合成途径和作用机制。miRNA可能同时调节成百上千个靶标, 其生物功能主要体现为: 调节细胞分化与凋亡, 调节器官和神经系统的发育, 控制肌肉分化, 保持能量动态平衡, 调节昆虫变态或综合调节作用。miRNA具有“低丰度、短序列、难富集”的特点, miRNA基因的获得和功能鉴定研究的基本策略是实验生物学和生物信息学方法的有机结合。鉴定新miRNA及其靶标, 深入研究其生物功能和基因进化等可能成为今后一段时间昆虫miRNA研究的重要内容。     

微RNA抑制物:竞争性内源RNA和人工miRNA吸附物

microRNA(miRNA)是一类细胞内源性的小片段非编码RNA家族,通过与靶基因3′非翻译区(3′untranslated region,3′UTR)结合,对基因表达进行转录后水平的负性调控,参与多种生理和病理学过程。对细胞内成熟体miRNA的功能抑制机制之一是抑制物与miRNA互补结合,从而阻止其与靶基因的结合。这类抑制物主要包括细胞内天然存在的竞争性内源RNA(competing endogenous RNA,ce RNA),以及人工合成或载体表达的外源性miRNA吸附物。本文分别对这两种机制的作用方式进行综述,并对二者的相似点和不同点进行总结。     

Cloning and characterization of microRNAs from wheat (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Triticum aestivum</Emphasis> L.)

Background  

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small, non-coding regulatory RNAs that regulate gene expression by guiding target mRNA cleavage or translational inhibition. So far, identification of miRNAs has been limited to a few model plant species, such as Arabidopsis, rice and Populus, whose genomes have been sequenced. Wheat is one of the most important cereal crops worldwide. To date, only a few conserved miRNAs have been predicted in wheat and the computational identification of wheat miRNAs requires the genome sequence, which is unknown.