title: Mining of miRNAs and potential targets from gene oriented clusters of transcripts sequences of the anti-malarial plant, Artemisia annua.
abstract: miRNAs involved in the biosynthesis of artemisinin, an anti-malarial compound form the plant Artemisia annua, have been identified using computational approaches to find conserved pre-miRNAs in available A. annua UniGene collections. Eleven pre-miRNAs were found from nine families. Targets predicted for these miRNAs were mainly transcription factors for conserved miRNAs. No target genes involved in artemisinin biosynthesis were found. However, miR390 was predicted to target a gene involved in the trichome development, which is the site of synthesis of artemisinin and could be a candidate for genetic transformation aiming to increase the content of artemisinin. Phylogenetic analyses were carried out to determinate the relation between A. annua and other plant pre-miRNAs: the pre-miRNA-based phylogenetic trees failed to correspond to known phylogenies, suggesting that pre-miRNA primary sequences may be too variable to accurately predict phylogenetic relations.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biología, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Bogota, DC, Colombia.
authors.forename: Alvaro L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Pérez-Quintero
authors.forename: Gaurav
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sablok
authors.forename: Tatiana V
authors.initials: TV
authors.lastname: Tatarinova
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Conesa
authors.forename: Jimmy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kuo
authors.forename: Camilo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: López
mesh_terms: D000962:Antimalarials / Q000378:metabolism*; D031172:Artemisia annua / Q000235:genetics*; D037621:Artemisinins / Q000378:metabolism*; D053898:Biosynthetic Pathways / Q000235:genetics*; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D007783:Lactones / Q000378:metabolism*; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D010802:Phylogeny; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D000962:Antimalarials; D037621:Artemisinins; D007783:Lactones; D035683:MicroRNAs; D010940:Plant Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; C075875:artemisin