OPEN ACCESS ARTICLE

This Article Free via Open Access: OA OA Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplemental Data OA All Versions of this Article: 19/6/1750    most recent tpc.107.051706v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Related articles in Plant Cell Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (28) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Axtell, M. J. Articles by Bartel, D. P. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Axtell, M. J. Articles by Bartel, D. P. Agricola Articles by Axtell, M. J. Articles by Bartel, D. P.

Common Functions for Diverse Small RNAs of Land Plants^[W],[OA]

^a Department of Biology and Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802
^b Whitehead Institute, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142
^c Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142

¹ To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail mja18{at}psu.edu.

Endogenous small RNAs, including microRNAs (miRNAs) and short interfering RNAs (siRNAs), are critical components of plant gene regulation. Some abundant miRNAs involved in developmental control are conserved between anciently diverged plants, while many other less-abundant miRNAs appear to have recently emerged in the Arabidopsis thaliana lineage. Using large-scale sequencing of small RNAs, we extended the known diversity of miRNAs in basal plants to include 88 confidently annotated miRNA families in the moss Physcomitrella patens and 44 in the lycopod Selaginella moellendorffii. Cleavage of 29 targets directed by 14 distinct P. patens miRNA families and a trans-acting siRNA (ta-siRNA) was experimentally confirmed. Despite a core set of 12 miRNA families also expressed in angiosperms, weakly expressed and apparently lineage-specific miRNAs accounted for the majority of miRNA diversity in both species. Nevertheless, the molecular functions of several of these lineage-specific small RNAs matched those of angiosperms, despite dissimilarities in the small RNA sequences themselves, including small RNAs that mediated negative feedback regulation of the miRNA pathway and miR390-dependent ta-siRNAs that guided the cleavage of AUXIN RESPONSE FACTOR mRNAs. Diverse, lineage-specific, small RNAs can therefore perform common biological functions in plants.

Related articles in Plant Cell:

Analysis of Small RNAs in the Basal Plant Lineages Physcomitrella and Selaginella

Nancy A. Eckardt
Plant Cell 2007 19: 1722. [Full Text]  

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. Moxon, R. Jing, G. Szittya, F. Schwach, R. L. Rusholme Pilcher, V. Moulton, and T. Dalmay Deep sequencing of tomato short RNAs identifies microRNAs targeting genes involved in fruit ripening Genome Res., October 1, 2008; 18(10): 1602 - 1609. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				B. Khraiwesh, S. Ossowski, D. Weigel, R. Reski, and W. Frank Specific Gene Silencing by Artificial MicroRNAs in Physcomitrella patens: An Alternative to Targeted Gene Knockouts Plant Physiology, October 1, 2008; 148(2): 684 - 693. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				Q.-H. Zhu, A. Spriggs, L. Matthew, L. Fan, G. Kennedy, F. Gubler, and C. Helliwell A diverse set of microRNAs and microRNA-like small RNAs in developing rice grains Genome Res., September 1, 2008; 18(9): 1456 - 1465. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				E. V. Dolgosheina, R. D. Morin, G. Aksay, S. C. Sahinalp, V. Magrini, E. R. Mardis, J. Mattsson, and P. J. Unrau Conifers have a unique small RNA silencing signature RNA, August 1, 2008; 14(8): 1508 - 1515. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. Eamens, M.-B. Wang, N. A. Smith, and P. M. Waterhouse RNA Silencing in Plants: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow Plant Physiology, June 1, 2008; 147(2): 456 - 468. [Full Text] [PDF]

				E. M. Tretter, J. P. Alvarez, Y. Eshed, and J. L. Bowman Activity Range of Arabidopsis Small RNAs Derived from Different Biogenesis Pathways Plant Physiology, May 1, 2008; 147(1): 58 - 62. [Full Text] [PDF]

				N. Warthmann, S. Das, C. Lanz, and D. Weigel Comparative Analysis of the MIR319a MicroRNA Locus in Arabidopsis and Related Brassicaceae Mol. Biol. Evol., May 1, 2008; 25(5): 892 - 902. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Wenkel, J. Emery, B.-H. Hou, M. M.S. Evans, and M.K. Barton A Feedback Regulatory Module Formed by LITTLE ZIPPER and HD-ZIPIII Genes PLANT CELL, November 1, 2007; 19(11): 3379 - 3390. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				C. Kutter, H. Schob, M. Stadler, F. Meins Jr., and A. Si-Ammour MicroRNA-Mediated Regulation of Stomatal Development in Arabidopsis PLANT CELL, August 1, 2007; 19(8): 2417 - 2429. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]