Analysis of miRNA in Plants by Next Generation Sequencing Technology

Abstract

miRNAs (microRNAs) find in the intron sites of the genes. miRNAs are produced from their gene region and non-coding RNAs. In plants, the production of miRNAs that consist of 21–24 nucleotides in length starts in nucleus and continues coordinately in cytoplasm. miRNAs help to protect the integrity of genome duo to define expression levels of genes related to development and stress in plant. In this way, miRNAs are considered to defend 30% of eukaryotic genomes. There are a few types of small RNAs such as miRNAs, siRNAs, phasiRNAs and NAT – siRNAs in plants. Various methods such as Northern Blotting, Flow cytometer, cloning, qRT – PCR, Microarray, sequencing and RNA-seq (transcriptome profiling) were developed to detect and discover functions of these small RNAs. Species and tissue specific miRNAs can be easily identified with this method called as miRNA-seq, one of the Next Generation Sequencing methods. In miRNA studies, the algorithms such as miRDeep-Seq, miRanalyzer, miRCat, miRExpress, miRTRAP can be used. This review summarizes about up to date applications of next generation seqeuncing technologies in miRNA-seq studies. © 2016, Centenary University. All rights reserved.