|
In silico
identification of MicroRNAs and their targets in diatoms
Yong zhong Lu* and Jie Liu
Biology Department, Qingdao University of Science and
Technology, Qingdao, 266043, China.
*Corresponding author.
E-mail: luyz@yahoo.com.
Tel: +86-532-84022845.
Accepted 10 June, 2010 |
|
As one of the most successful groups of microalgae in the
contemporary ocean, diatoms are of ecological,
biotechnological and evolutionary significance. Recent
research has revealed for the first time the presence of
functional silencing machinery in diatoms. Nevertheless, no
microRNAs (miRNAs) participating in their gene regulation
have been reported. Based on the principle of sequence
conservation, previous known plant miRNAs were blasted
against the expressed sequence tag databases of the marine
diatoms Phaeodactylum tricornutum and
Thalassiosira pseudonana and according to a series of
filtering criteria, 6 conserved miRNAs were identified and 5
potential target genes of them were subsequently predicted.
Alignmental and phylogenetic analyses showed that the miRNA
precursor sequences were unexpectedly poorly conserved and
distantly related to other family members. Above all, the
findings from this study will contribute not only to further
research of miRNAs features and regulatory mechanisms in
diatoms, but also to their evolutionary research by virtue
of new molecular tools.
Key words:
Diatom, microRNA, evolution, bioinformatics. |
