Abstract
Studies of maize small RNAs (sRNAs) are providing insights and novel discoveries in both RNA biology and plant evolution. With improvements to the genome and the development of a broad array of resources supporting maize research, maize sRNAs have become better understood in recent years. Here, we review the major classes of maize sRNAs, including heterochromatic small interfering RNAs (hc-siRNAs), phased secondary small interfering RNAs (phasiRNAs), and microRNAs (miRNAs). We examine their biogenesis, roles in paramutation, and functions, including both what is known and hypothesized. Finally, we describe the resources for their study, including bioinformatics tools that will contribute in future studies of maize sRNAs to the elucidation of their biogenesis, function, and evolution.
Reza Hammond and Chong Teng are equally contributed.
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This work was supported by a grant from the US National Science Foundation, Plant Genome Research Program (NSF-PGRP), award #1649424.
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Hammond, R., Teng, C., Meyers, B.C. (2018). Maize Small RNAs as Seeds of Change and Stability in Gene Expression and Genome Stability. In: Bennetzen, J., Flint-Garcia, S., Hirsch, C., Tuberosa, R. (eds) The Maize Genome. Compendium of Plant Genomes. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97427-9_8
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