Functional Analysis of the Arabidopsis small RNAs involved in the responses to drought, cold, high-salinity stresses

Abstract

Small 20- to 25-nt, non-coding RNAs have emerged as important regulators of eukaryotic gene regulation by guiding mRNA degradation, DNA methylation, and modification. In Arabidopsis, about 100,000 small RNAs have been reported. However, their biological roles in the responses to drought, cold and high-salinity stresses have not been well understood.
Recently, 454 sequencing technology has become a powerful tool for the large scale analysis of the small RNAs. We applied the 454 sequencing technology for exploring the small RNAs involved in the responses to drought, cold, high salinity stresses. Large-scale analysis of the small RNAs showed that the expressions of 10 novel miRNAs are regulated by the stresses. Functional analysis of the stress-responsive miRNAs is in progress.