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IN BRIEF

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

neckardt{at}aspb.org

Eukaryotes produce small RNAs (21 and 24 nucleotides in length) that function as sequence-specific posttranscriptional regulators. Axtell et al. (pages 1750–1769) used high-throughput small RNA sequencing for the discovery of microRNAs (miRNAs) and other small RNAs in the bryophyte (moss) Physcomitrella patens and the lycopod Selaginella moellendorffii to provide an in-depth analysis of the evolution of plant miRNAs. The results reveal the expression of a large number of distinct miRNA families in Physcomitrella and Selaginella. A relatively small set of these miRNAs were found to be core conserved plant miRNAs that were highly conserved between mosses, lycopods, and angiosperms (the latter group represented by Arabidopsis). These core conserved miRNAs were abundantly expressed in both angiosperms and the basal pants and mainly appear to be involved on the regulation of major developmental processes. The majority of lineage-specific miRNAs in both lycopods and mosses was generally expressed at lower levels than the core conserved miRNAs. It was further shown that the core conserved plant miRNAs have generally retained homologous target interactions during the diversification of land plants. Surprisingly, experimentally validated targets included several instances in which lineage-specific P. patens small RNAs share common functions with sequence-distinct Arabidopsis small RNAs. This demonstrates that diverse, lineage-specific small RNAs can perform common biological functions in plants.

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www.plantcell.org/cgi/doi/10.1105/tpc.107.190610

Related articles in Plant Cell:

Common Functions for Diverse Small RNAs of Land Plants

Michael J. Axtell, Jo Ann Snyder, and David P. Bartel
Plant Cell 2007 19: 1750-1769. [Abstract] [Full Text]  

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