麦类等主要作物的miRNA研究进展

Research Progress on miRNA in Wheat and Barley

microRNA(miRNA)是一类小分子的非编码RNA,可通过对其靶基因mRNA的降解或翻译抑制调控基因表达。目前除对拟南芥、水稻和杨树等模式植物已进行研究之外,对麦类作物的miRNA也进行了初步研究。利用生物信息学预测和小分子RNA测序的方法,目前已克隆了一系列小麦和大麦miRNA,包括物种保守的miRNA及麦类特有的miRNA。靶基因预测及miRNA表达谱分析显示这些麦类miRNA的表达具有时空特异性,可能参与生长发育及胁迫应答的调控。这些数据为进一步研究植物miRNA的进化及麦类miR-NA参与的特异调控功能提供了线索及依据。

microRNA is a kind of non-coding RNAs which could regulate the expressions of target genes through mRNA degradation or translation repression.Besides the model plants,miRNAs of triticeae were also under way.A large number of miRNAs from triticeae,including conserved miRNAs and triticeae-specific miRNAs have been identified using bioinformatic prediction and small RNA sequencing.The analysis on the prediction of target gene and expression profiling showed the tempo-spatial expression patterns of triticeae miRNAs and indicated their important roles in plant growth,development and stress responses.These findings will be useful for further investigation into the biological functions and evolution of miRNAs in barley and wheat.