title: MicroRNAs and targets in senescent litchi fruit during ambient storage and post-cold storage shelf life.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Litchi has a high commercial value due to its bright color and rich nutrients. However, it deteriorates with the pericarp turning brown within 1-2 days after harvest. The factors that mediate litchi fruit senescence are complicated. MicroRNAs act as negative regulators involved in almost every physiological process. To understand the mechanism of litchi fruit senescence and pericarp browning at the miRNA level, five small RNA libraries and a degradome library prepared from the pericarp of litchi fruit subjected to ambient storage and post-cold storage shelf life were sequenced.
  
  
  RESULTS
  By aligning the sRNA reads onto the litchi unigene assembly, 296 miRNAs belonging to 49 known miRNA families were first identified from litchi. In addition, 11 litchi-specific miRNAs were identified. Among these, 167 known miRNAs were identified to cleave 197 targets, and three litchi-specific miRNAs were found to have five targets. Through combined analysis of stem-loop quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and transcriptome profiling, 14 miRNA-target pairs were found to be actively involved in litchi fruit senescence-related processes, including energy regulation, anthocyanin metabolism, hormone signaling, and pathogen-infection defense.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A network of miRNA-targets that regulate litchi fruit senescence has been proposed, revealing the miRNA-mediated regulation in senescent litchi fruit. This will aid in developing new strategies to postpone the senescence of litchi fruit and other horticultural products.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510650, P R of China. yaofurong312@yeah.net.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, P R of China. yaofurong312@yeah.net.
authors.forename: Furong
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510650, P R of China. zhuhong@scbg.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510650, P R of China. yichun1982@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Chun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yi
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510650, P R of China. q-hxia@scbg.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Hongxia
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Qu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510650, P R of China. ymjiang@scbg.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Yueming
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D017124:Conserved Sequence / Q000235:genetics; D030561:Databases, Nucleic Acid; D005638:Fruit / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D015723:Gene Library; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D017343:Genes, Plant; D032125:Litchi / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development*; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011309:Preservation, Biological; D020871:RNA Stability / Q000235:genetics; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs