Profiling of 21 novel microRNA clusters and their targets in an important grain: wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

摘要

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-protein coding RNAs made up of 18 to 26 nucleotides and produced in a cell endogenously. Most of them are conserved in nature evolutionally and thus providing a logical basis for the prediction of novel miRNAs and their clusters in many plants. In this research, structural and functional approaches have been combined to make prediction of novel miRNA clusters and their targets in wheat. The total numbers of detected novel miRNA clusters were 21 related to 19 miRNA families in wheat. These families were found as: 160, 396, 399, 414, 530, 2118, 2275, 5049, 5065, 5066, 5067, 5174, 5522, 5568, 6198, 6221, 7742, 7757 and 7778. Various attributes related to these miRNA clusters such as secondary structures, phylogenetic tree and web logo were generated and the minimum free energy (MFE) of the stem-loop structures was also achieved and reported. The mature miRNAs were found in the stem region of the hair-pin structures and, in this regard, 93 targets of the miRNAs were identified as well. The identified targets were various proteins including hypothetical, transporter, metabolism, transcription factor, cell signalling and stress related.