Non-coding RNAs associated with sclerotial development in Sclerotinia sclerotiorum*
Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is a model necrotrophic pathogen causing diverse fungal diseases to make greatly economic losses worldwide. Sclerotium is a major source of primary invasive and survival structure under advers e stress. This dormant structure also plays an important biological and pathological significance in the life and disease cycle of S. sclerotiorum and other sclerotium-forming fungi. In our previous study, a total of 275 milRNAs involved in sclerotial development were identified, of which 51 milRNAs were differentially expressed and their targets were predicted. Among these milRNAs, Ssc-milR-240 with its target histone acetyltransferase gene potentially regulated sclerotial development by acetylation modification. In recent, a total of 1966 lncRNAs associated with sclerotial development were also identified, of which 531 differentially expressed lncRNAs with their targets were predicted and further annotated the putative functions by gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses. lncRNAs are involved in metabolic process and membrane transport pathway. Notably, a lncRNA MSTRG.13514.1 coupled with its target the ABC transporter was possibly involved in the regulation of acetyl-CoA and acetylation. These results implicated that sclerotial development was regulated with protein acetylation mediated by milRNAs and lncRNAs. This work will provide new insights into the epigenetic regulation of fungal development in S. sclerotinia and sclerotium-forming fungi.