Computational identification of miRNAs and their targets from Crocus sativus L.

Abstract

miRNAs are smaller known entities that perform several crucial regulatory roles in plants. Identification and characterization of miRNAs has been a challenging task which has become simplified with the development of computational approaches. In the present study, three novel miRNAs were predicted from Crocus sativus by computational approaches. A total 6767 ESTs were mined from the EST database available at NCBI. The software MicroPC was utilized which resulted with the prediction of three miRNAs, csa-miR1, csa-miR2 and csa-miR3. Targets were predicted for the respective miRNAs using the miRU2 program. The identified targets have a role in plant growth, senescence, disease resistance and various stress responses. In addition, some targets are involved in mRNA export, protein synthesis and posttranslational modifications.

Keywords

• microRNA
• Crocus sativus
• structure
• targets