computational identification of conserved micrornas and their targets in tea (camellia sinensis)计算守恒的小分子核糖核酸的识别及其在茶(茶树)目标.pdfVIP

American Journal of Plant Sciences , 2010, 1, 77-86 77 doi:10.4236/ajps.2010.12010 Published Online December 2010 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/ajps) Computational Identification of Conserved microRNAs and Their Targets in Tea (Camellia sinensis) 1 1,2* Akan Das , Tapan Kumar Mondal 1Biotechnology Laboratory, Faculty of Horticulture, Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Cooch Behar, West Bengal, India; 2National Research Center of DNA Fingerprinting, National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi, India. * Email: mondaltk@ Received November 2nd, 2010; revised November 15th, 2010; accepted November 22nd, 2010. ABSTRACT MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of ~22 nucleotides long non coding RNA molecules which play an important role in gene regulation at the post transcriptional level. The conserved nature of miRNAs provides the basis of new miRNA identification through homology search. In an attempt to identify new conserved miRNAs in tea, previously known plant miRNAs were used for searching their homolog in a tea Expressed Sequence Tags and full length nucleotide sequence database. The sequences showing homolog no more than four mismatches were predicted for their fold back structures and passed through a series of filtration criteria, finally led us to identify 13 conserved miRNAs in tea belonging to 9 miRNA families. A total of 37 potential target genes in Arabidopsis were identified subsequently for 7 miRNA families based on their sequence complementarity which encode transcription factors (8%), enzymes (30%) and transporters (14%) as well as other proteins involved in physiological and metabolic processes (48%). Overall, our findings will accelerate the way for further researches of miRNAs and their functions in tea. Keywords : Camellia sinensis, Computational Identification, Expressed Sequenc