title: Identification of 20 microRNAs from Oryza sativa.
abstract: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are present in both plant and animal kingdoms and represents a growing family of non-coding RNAs. These tiny RNAs act as small guides and direct negative regulations usually in the process of development through sequence complementarity to target mRNAs. Although a large number of miRNAs have been identified from various animals, so far plant miRNA studies have focused mainly on Arabidopsis. Here we describe the identification of 20 miRNAs from a rice cDNA library. All the miRNAs were presumably processed from precursors with stem-loop structures and were positively detected in rice cells from at least one tissue, some of which showed tissue-specific expression. Twenty-three unique rice genes were identified to be feasible targets for seven rice miRNAs, including four members of Scarecrow-like transcription factor, the targets of miR-39 that had been characterized in Arabidopsis. Lacking long complementarity, the regulatory targets of 13 miRNAs remain to be further investigated. A possible mechanism of translational repressor for plant miRNAs that lack perfect complementarity to target mRNAs is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Gene Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Biotechnology Research Center, Zhongshan University, Guangzhou 510275, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jia-Fu
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Yue-Qin
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Qing-Jun
authors.initials: QJ
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Liang-Hu
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Qu
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D015723:Gene Library; D018745:Genome, Plant; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D012275:Oryza / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D018749:RNA, Plant / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs; D018749:RNA, Plant