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Deng F, Zeng F, Shen Q, Abbas A, Cheng J, Jiang W, Chen G, Shah AN, Holford P, Tanveer M, Zhang D, Chen ZH. Molecular evolution and functional modification of plant miRNAs with CRISPR. TRENDS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2022; 27:890-907. [PMID: 35165036 DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2022.01.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2021] [Revised: 01/06/2022] [Accepted: 01/20/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Gene editing using clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat/CRISPR-associated proteins (CRISPR/Cas) has revolutionized biotechnology and provides genetic tools for medicine and life sciences. However, the application of this technology to miRNAs, with the function as negative gene regulators, has not been extensively reviewed in plants. Here, we summarize the evolution, biogenesis, and structure of miRNAs, as well as their interactions with mRNAs and computational models for predicting target genes. In addition, we review current advances in CRISPR/Cas for functional analysis and for modulating miRNA genes in plants. Extending our knowledge of miRNAs and their manipulation with CRISPR will provide fundamental understanding of the functions of plant miRNAs and facilitate more sustainable and publicly acceptable genetic engineering of crops.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fenglin Deng
- Collaborative Innovation Center for Grain Industry, College of Agriculture, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, China
| | - Fanrong Zeng
- Collaborative Innovation Center for Grain Industry, College of Agriculture, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, China
| | - Qiufang Shen
- College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Asad Abbas
- School of Horticulture, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei 230036, China
| | - Jianhui Cheng
- Collaborative Innovation Center for Grain Industry, College of Agriculture, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, China
| | - Wei Jiang
- Collaborative Innovation Center for Grain Industry, College of Agriculture, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, China
| | - Guang Chen
- Central Laboratory, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Science, Hangzhou, China
| | - Adnan Noor Shah
- Department of Agricultural Engineering, Khawaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology, Rahim Yar Khan, 64200, Pakistan
| | - Paul Holford
- School of Science, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia
| | - Mohsin Tanveer
- Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS 7004, Australia.
| | - Dabing Zhang
- Joint International Research Laboratory of Metabolic and Developmental Sciences, Shanghai Jiao Tong University-University of Adelaide Joint Centre for Agriculture and Health, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China; School of Agriculture, Food, and Wine, University of Adelaide, Glen Osmond, SA, Australia.
| | - Zhong-Hua Chen
- School of Science, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia; Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia.
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Ivanova Z, Minkov G, Gisel A, Yahubyan G, Minkov I, Toneva V, Baev V. The Multiverse of Plant Small RNAs: How Can We Explore It?
. Int J Mol Sci 2022; 23:ijms23073979. [PMID: 35409340 PMCID: PMC8999349 DOI: 10.3390/ijms23073979] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2022] [Revised: 03/28/2022] [Accepted: 03/31/2022] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Plant small RNAs (sRNAs) are a heterogeneous group of noncoding RNAs with a length of 20–24 nucleotides that are widely studied due to their importance as major regulators in various biological processes. sRNAs are divided into two main classes—microRNAs (miRNAs) and small interfering RNAs (siRNAs)—which differ in their biogenesis and functional pathways. Their identification and enrichment with new structural variants would not be possible without the use of various high-throughput sequencing (NGS) techniques, allowing for the detection of the total population of sRNAs in plants. Classifying sRNAs and predicting their functional role based on such high-performance datasets is a nontrivial bioinformatics task, as plants can generate millions of sRNAs from a variety of biosynthetic pathways. Over the years, many computing tools have been developed to meet this challenge. Here, we review more than 35 tools developed specifically for plant sRNAs over the past few years and explore some of their basic algorithms for performing tasks related to predicting, identifying, categorizing, and quantifying individual sRNAs in plant samples, as well as visualizing the results of these analyzes. We believe that this review will be practical for biologists who want to analyze their plant sRNA datasets but are overwhelmed by the number of tools available, thus answering the basic question of how to choose the right one for a particular study.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zdravka Ivanova
- Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnologies, 4108 Markovo, Bulgaria; (Z.I.); (G.M.); (I.M.); (V.T.)
| | - Georgi Minkov
- Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnologies, 4108 Markovo, Bulgaria; (Z.I.); (G.M.); (I.M.); (V.T.)
- Department of Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology, University of Plovdiv, 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria;
| | - Andreas Gisel
- Institute of Biomedical Technologies (ITB), CNR, 70126 Bari, Italy;
| | - Galina Yahubyan
- Department of Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology, University of Plovdiv, 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria;
| | - Ivan Minkov
- Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnologies, 4108 Markovo, Bulgaria; (Z.I.); (G.M.); (I.M.); (V.T.)
- Center of Plant System Biology and Biotechnology, 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria
| | - Valentina Toneva
- Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnologies, 4108 Markovo, Bulgaria; (Z.I.); (G.M.); (I.M.); (V.T.)
- Department of Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology, University of Plovdiv, 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria;
| | - Vesselin Baev
- Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnologies, 4108 Markovo, Bulgaria; (Z.I.); (G.M.); (I.M.); (V.T.)
- Department of Plant Physiology and Molecular Biology, University of Plovdiv, 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria;
- Correspondence:
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Meng Y, Ma X, Li J, Shao C. Creating and maintaining a high-confidence microRNA repository for crop research: A brief review and re-examination of the current crop microRNA registries. JOURNAL OF PLANT PHYSIOLOGY 2022; 270:153636. [PMID: 35124290 DOI: 10.1016/j.jplph.2022.153636] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2021] [Revised: 01/28/2022] [Accepted: 01/29/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
miRBase was established as an authoritative microRNA (miRNA) database with a uniform nomenclature system and a searchable web interface. Recent popularization of the next-generation sequencing technology in small RNA cloning led to an explosive growth of the miRNA repository. Although a specific definition system has been proposed for the plant miRNAs, the quality of the plant miRNA registries deposited in miRBase is largely dependent on the submitters. With the growing concerns over the annotation quality, a set of criteria for identification of the high-confidence (HC) miRNAs was recently developed by miRBase. Since miRNAs could serve as a powerful tool for crop genetic improvement and breeding, we present a brief overview of the miRBase-registered crop miRNAs in this study. A total of 54 plants were identified from the 82 Viridiplantae species in the current version of miRBase, and were regarded as the crops. A total of 6316 precursors encoding 7422 mature miRNAs (miRBase release 22.1) were included in our survey. Based on the HC annotation criteria, we performed structure- and sequencing data-based analyses of the confidence of the crop miRNAs. According to the results, we propose suggestions for improvements of the HC annotation system and, moreover, discuss strategies for creating and maintaining an HC miRNA repository of crops. Finally, we hope that this study inspires more efforts devoted to HC miRNA discoveries for crop research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yijun Meng
- College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 311121, China.
| | - Xiaoxia Ma
- College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 311121, China; School of Pharmacy, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 311121, China
| | - Jie Li
- College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 311121, China
| | - Chaogang Shao
- College of Life Sciences, Huzhou University, Huzhou, 313000, China
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