Stress-responsive microRNAs in Populus

• Published in: The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology Vol. 55; no. 1; pp. 131 - 151
• Main Authors: Lu, Shanfa, Sun, Ying-Hsuan, Chiang, Vincent L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Oxford, UK : Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.07.2008; Blackwell Publishing Ltd; Blackwell Science
• Subjects: abiotic stress; Base Sequence; Biological and medical sciences; Blotting, Northern; Botany; Cloning; Cloning, Molecular; cold stress; Cold Temperature; Dehydration; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Genes, Plant; Genetics; growth and development; Hot Temperature; metabolism; microRNA; MicroRNAs; MicroRNAs - metabolism; Molecular biology; Molecular Sequence Data; non-coding RNA; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; physiology; plant development; Plant physiology and development; Plant species; Populus; Populus - genetics; Populus - physiology; Populus balsamifera subsp. trichocarpa; Populus trichocarpa; Ribonucleic acid; RNA; Salinity; sequence homology; Stress, Mechanical; tissues; Trees; Water; Water - physiology; Water and solutes. Absorption, translocation and permeability; Cold; Growth; cold stress; Populus trichocarpa; trees; Stress; Salicaceae; Salinity; abiotic stress; Gene; Mechanical stress; Dicotyledones; Angiospermae; Development; microRNA; Spermatophyta
• ISSN: 0960-7412; 1365-313X; 1365-313X
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-313X.2008.03497.x

MicroRNAs (miRNAs), a group of small non-coding RNAs, have recently become the subject of intense study. They are a class of post-transcriptional negative regulators playing vital roles in plant development and growth. However, little is known about their regulatory roles in the responses of trees to the stressful environments incurred over their long-term growth. Here, we report the cloning of small RNAs from abiotic stressed tissues of Populus trichocarpa (Ptc) and the identification of 68 putative miRNA sequences that can be classified into 27 families based on sequence homology. Among them, nine families are novel, increasing the number of the known Ptc-miRNA families from 33 to 42. A total of 346 targets was predicted for the cloned Ptc-miRNAs using penalty scores of