MicroRNAs with analogous target complementarities perform with highly variable efficacies in Arabidopsis

In plants, the silencing efficacy of microRNAs (miRNAs) is thought to be predominantly determined by the degree of complementarity to their target genes. Here, silencing efficacy was determined for Arabidopsis miR159 and four artificial miRNAs (amiRNAs) that all target MYB33/MYB65 with analogous complementarities. As determined through complementation of a loss-of-function mir159 mutant, the amiRNAs displayed highly variable efficacies, none of which was as strong as endogenous miR159. This was despite amiRNA expression levels being many fold-higher than miR159 in wild-type. The results highlight the variable nature of miRNA silencing efficacy in plants, where it appears that factors additional to complementarity strongly impact silencing.     

Artificial microRNAs (amiRNAs) engineering - On how microRNA-based silencing methods have affected current plant silencing research

In recent years, endogenous microRNAs have been described as important regulators of gene expression in eukaryotes. Artificial microRNAs (amiRNAs) represent a recently developed miRNA-based strategy to silence endogenous genes. amiRNAs can be created by exchanging the miRNA/miRNA^∗ sequence within a miRNA precursor with a sequence designed to match the target gene, this is possible as long as the secondary RNA structure of the precursor is kept intact. In this review, we summarize the basic methodologies to design amiRNAs and detail their applications in plants genetic functional studies as well as their potential for crops genetic improvement.     

拟南芥At5g01510和At5g49820基因人工microRNAs的构建与鉴定

以拟南芥内源MIR319a前体为骨架,构建沉默DUF647家族基因At5t01510和At5g49820表达的人工microRNAs,研究其对目的基因表达的抑制效果。利用WMD平台设计分别靶向At5g01510和At5g49820的amiRNAs序列,通过重叠PCR改造拟南芥MIR319a骨架序列,使其包含我们设计的特异amiRNAs序列。构建35S：：amiR-At5g0150和35S：：amiR-At5g49820融合基因,以农杆菌介导的花苞浸染法转化获得转基因拟南芥。RT-PCR分析表明,人工microRNAs能够显著抑制靶基因的表达,获得了抑制效果明显的转基因植株。本工作为进一步研究这两个基因的功能奠定了良好的基础。