title: Identification of MicroRNAs in Response to Different Day Lengths in Soybean Using High-Throughput Sequencing and qRT-PCR.
abstract: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short, non-coding single-strand RNA molecules that play important roles in plant growth, development and stress responses. Flowering time affects the seed yield and quality of soybean. However, the miRNAs involved in the regulation of flowering time in soybean have not been reported until recently. Here, high-throughput sequencing and qRT-PCR were used to identify miRNAs involved in soybean photoperiodic pathways. The first trifoliate leaves of soybean that receive the signal of light treatment were used to construct six libraries (0, 8, and 16 h under short-day (SD) treatment and 0, 8, and 16 h under long-day (LD) treatment). The libraries were sequenced using Illumina Solexa. A total of 318 known plant miRNAs belonging to 163 miRNA families and 81 novel predicted miRNAs were identified. Among these, 23 miRNAs at 0 h, 65 miRNAs at 8 h and 83 miRNAs at 16 h, including six novel predicted miRNAs at 8 h and six novel predicted miRNAs at 16 h, showed differences in abundance between LD and SD treatments. Furthermore, the results of GO and KEGG analyses indicated that most of the miRNA targets were transcription factors. Seven miRNAs at 0 h, 23 miRNAs (including four novel predicted miRNAs) at 8 h, 16 miRNAs (including one novel predicted miRNA) at 16 h and miRNA targets were selected for qRT-PCR analysis to assess the accuracy of the sequencing and target prediction. The results indicated that the expression patterns of the selected miRNAs and miRNA targets showed no differences between the qRT-PCR and sequencing results. In addition, 23 miRNAs at 0 h, 65 miRNAs at 8 h and 83 miRNAs at 16 h responded to day length changes in soybean, including six novel predicted miRNAs at 8 h and six novel predicted miRNAs at 16 h. These results provided an important molecular basis to understand the regulation of flowering time through photoperiodic pathways in soybean.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology of Chinese Education Ministry (Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetics & Breeding for Soybean in Northeast China), Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China.
authors.forename: Wenbin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology of Chinese Education Ministry (Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetics & Breeding for Soybean in Northeast China), Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China.
authors.forename: Pengpeng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology of Chinese Education Ministry (Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetics & Breeding for Soybean in Northeast China), Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China.
authors.forename: Yongguang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology of Chinese Education Ministry (Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetics & Breeding for Soybean in Northeast China), Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China.
authors.forename: Kexin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology of Chinese Education Ministry (Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetics & Breeding for Soybean in Northeast China), Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China.
authors.forename: Fuquan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology of Chinese Education Ministry (Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetics & Breeding for Soybean in Northeast China), Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China.
authors.forename: Tengkun
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nie
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology of Chinese Education Ministry (Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetics & Breeding for Soybean in Northeast China), Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China.
authors.forename: Xue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology of Chinese Education Ministry (Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetics & Breeding for Soybean in Northeast China), Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China.
authors.forename: Qingxue
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Soybean Biology of Chinese Education Ministry (Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetics & Breeding for Soybean in Northeast China), Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D016384:Consensus Sequence; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D063990:Gene Ontology; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing / Q000379:methods*; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D017440:Photoperiod; D018749:RNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D013025:Glycine max / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs; D018749:RNA, Plant