Abstract
Plant microRNAs (miRNA) act as important regulators of gene expression and carry potential uses in plant genetic engineering. Lignin is an abundant biopolymer in plants, conferring strength to the cell wall. Most of the recalcitrance of the lignocellulosic biomass to produce biofuels is due to the chemical nature of lignin and its interaction with the other components of the cell wall. Thus, understanding lignin biosynthesis and deposition is crucial for the biofuel industry, and interfering in RNA (iRNA) may be a valuable tool to produce transgenic plants with reduced lignin concentration and/or modified composition. Here we report on the miRNA profile of Eucalyptus grandis and E. globulus in which 28 conserved and 19 novel miRNAs were found. We identified 316 putative targets of known and 110 putative targets of novel miRNAs. No significant differences in miRNA expression were found between tension and opposite wood samples. Gene Ontology enrichment analysis returned several attractive targets for identified miRNAs, among which are laccases and transcription factors that may regulate the expression of lignin biosynthesis.
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Acknowledgements
This work was partially granted by São Paulo Foundation (FAPESP grants − 2011/51949-5 and 2014/23230-4). PM thanks Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq-Brazil) for a research fellowship.
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FTT, AAV and URS carried out the experiments and analysis, GAGP and MFC helped in the bioinformatic analysis, PM designed the research, FTT, AAV and PM wrote the manuscript.
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40626_2022_259_MOESM1_ESM.png
Supplementary material 1 Fig. S1 Stem was bent to 45° using a metal rod to induce lignification using the reaction wood model. Stems were stained with phloroglucinol-HCl for lignin visualization (E. grandis A and B; E. globulus C and D) and lignin concentration was determined in control, tension wood (TW) and opposite wood (OW). (PNG 422.0 kb)
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Supplementary material 2 Fig. S2 Putative target enzyme differential expression E. globulus (a) and E. grandis (b). The heatmap shows upregulation in darker blue and downregulation in darker red. (Blank cells for PRXs refer to enzymes that have not been named in the Peroxibase database) (PNG 87.0 kb)
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Tolentino, F.T., Vasconcelos, A.A., Souza, U.R. et al. Identification of microRNAs and their expression profiles on tension and opposite wood of Eucalyptus. Theor. Exp. Plant Physiol. 34, 485–500 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40626-022-00259-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40626-022-00259-9