title: Identification of evolutionarily conserved Momordica charantia microRNAs using computational approach and its utility in phylogeny analysis.
abstract: Momordica charantia (bitter gourd, bitter melon) is a monoecious Cucurbitaceae with anti-oxidant, anti-microbial, anti-viral and anti-diabetic potential. Molecular studies on this economically valuable plant are very essential to understand its phylogeny and evolution. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are conserved, small, non-coding RNA with ability to regulate gene expression by bind the 3' UTR region of target mRNA and are evolved at different rates in different plant species. In this study we have utilized homology based computational approach and identified 27 mature miRNAs for the first time from this bio-medically important plant. The phylogenetic tree developed from binary data derived from the data on presence/absence of the identified miRNAs were noticed to be uncertain and biased. Most of the identified miRNAs were highly conserved among the plant species and sequence based phylogeny analysis of miRNAs resolved the above difficulties in phylogeny approach using miRNA. Predicted gene targets of the identified miRNAs revealed their importance in regulation of plant developmental process. Reported miRNAs held sequence conservation in mature miRNAs and the detailed phylogeny analysis of pre-miRNA sequences revealed genus specific segregation of clusters.
authors.affiliation: Pondicherry Centre for Biological Sciences, Jawahar Nagar, Pondicherry, India; State Bio-control Laboratory, Perunthalaivar Kamaraj Krishi Vigyan Kendra (PKKVK), Kurumbapet, Puducherry, India. Electronic address: thiru_dna@yahoo.co.in.
authors.forename: Krishnaraj
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Thirugnanasambantham
authors.affiliation: Pondicherry Centre for Biological Sciences, Jawahar Nagar, Pondicherry, India.
authors.forename: Subramanian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saravanan
authors.affiliation: School of Bioscience and Technology, Vellore Institute of Technology, VIT University, Vellore, India.
authors.forename: Kulandaivelu
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Karikalan
authors.affiliation: Pondicherry Centre for Biological Sciences, Jawahar Nagar, Pondicherry, India.
authors.forename: Rajaraman
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bharanidharan
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Pondicherry University, Kalapet, Pondicherry, India.
authors.forename: Perumal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lalitha
authors.affiliation: Pondicherry Centre for Biological Sciences, Jawahar Nagar, Pondicherry, India.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ilango
authors.affiliation: Pondicherry Centre for Biological Sciences, Jawahar Nagar, Pondicherry, India. Electronic address: pcbsresearch@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Villianur Ibrahim
authors.initials: VI
authors.lastname: HairulIslam
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*; D029777:Momordica charantia / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D018749:RNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics*; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs; D018749:RNA, Plant
keywords: Momordica charantia; Phylogeny; Plant develolpment; Short Read Archive; microRNA