Adenylation of plant miRNAs
Open Access
- 21 January 2009
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Nucleic Acids Research
- Vol. 37 (6) , 1878-1885
- https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkp031
Abstract
The modification or degradation of RNAs including miRNAs may play vital roles in regulating RNA functions. The polyadenylation- and exosome-mediated RNA decay is involved in the degradation of plant RNAs including the primary miRNA processing intermediates. However, plant miRNA levels are not affected by exosome depletion. Here, we report the cloning of a large number of 5′ and/or 3′ truncated versions of the known miRNAs from various tissues of Populus trichocarpa (black cottonwood). It suggests that plant miRNAs may be degraded through either 5′ to 3′ or 3′ to 5′ exonucleolytic digestion. We also show that a significant portion of the isolated miRNAs contains, at the 3′-end, one or a few post-transcriptionally added adenylic acid residues, which are distinct in length from the polyadenylate tail added to other plant RNAs for exosome-mediated degradation. Using an in vitro miRNA degradation system, where synthesized miRNA oligos were degraded in extracts of P. trichocarpa cells, we revealed that the adenylated miRNAs were degraded slower than others without adenylation. It indicates that addition of adenylic acid residues on the 3′-end plays a negative role in miRNA degradation. Our results provide new information for understanding the mechanism of miRNA degradation.Keywords
This publication has 33 references indexed in Scilit:
- Degradation of microRNAs by a Family of Exoribonucleases in ArabidopsisScience, 2008
- Stress‐responsive microRNAs in PopulusThe Plant Journal, 2008
- MicroRNA-mediated Systemic Down-regulation of Copper Protein Expression in Response to Low Copper Availability in ArabidopsisJournal of Biological Chemistry, 2008
- Genome-Based Analysis of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Exoribonucleases and Poly(A) Polymerases Predicts Unexpected Organellar and Exosomal FeaturesGenetics, 2008
- Conservation and divergence of microRNAs in PopulusBMC Genomics, 2007
- Methylation as a Crucial Step in Plant microRNA BiogenesisScience, 2005
- Genetic and Functional Diversification of Small RNA Pathways in PlantsPLoS Biology, 2004
- A simple and efficient method for isolating RNA from pine treesPlant Molecular Biology Reporter, 1993
- Basic Local Alignment Search ToolJournal of Molecular Biology, 1990
- Basic local alignment search toolJournal of Molecular Biology, 1990