title: Computational analysis of drought stress-associated miRNAs and miRNA co-regulation network in Physcomitrella patens.
abstract: miRNAs are non-coding small RNAs that involve diverse biological processes. Until now, little is known about their roles in plant drought resistance. Physcomitrella patens is highly tolerant to drought; however, it is not clear about the basic biology of the traits that contribute P. patens this important character. In this work, we discovered 16 drought stress-associated miRNA (DsAmR) families in P. patens through computational analysis. Due to the possible discrepancy of expression periods and tissue distributions between potential DsAmRs and their targeting genes, and the existence of false positive results in computational identification, the prediction results should be examined with further experimental validation. We also constructed an miRNA co-regulation network, and identified two network hubs, miR902a-5p and miR414, which may play important roles in regulating drought-resistance traits. We distributed our results through an online database named ppt-miRBase, which can be accessed at http://bioinfor.cnu.edu.cn/ppt_miRBase/index.php. Our methods in finding DsAmR and miRNA co-regulation network showed a new direction for identifying miRNA functions.
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing, China. wanp_cnu@yahoo.com.cn
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Junshu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Weizhong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Shen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.forename: Guanglong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Jake Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D019068:Bryopsida / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods; D030561:Databases, Nucleic Acid; D055864:Droughts; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D018749:RNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs; D018749:RNA, Plant