miRNA profiling in plants: Current identification and expression approaches

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are the members of small noncoding RNA molecules in eukaryotes that regulate the posttranscriptional gene expression of target mRNAs positively or negatively via their degradation and/or translational inhibition. miRNAs play a crucial role in biological processes such as growth, development, maturation, cell differentiation, and response to various abiotic and biotic stress factors. Therefore, miRNA discovery and determining the functional aspects of miRNA expressions and their targets are important for breeding strategies and plant biotechnology. There are several computational and experimental approaches to identify miRNAs and reveal the expression patterns such as cloning, homology- based approaches, highthroughput deep sequencing, quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) and hybridization- based methods such as microarray and northern blot. Here, we describe these recent approaches for miRNA profiling on some model and non-model plant species following brief information about miRNA evolution and biogenesis.