Identification of AGO3-associated miRNAs and computational prediction of their targets in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

ABSTRACT: The unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii harbors many types of small RNAs (sRNAs) but little is known about their role(s) in the regulation of endogenous genes and cellular processes. To define functional microRNAs (miRNAs) in Chlamydomonas, we characterized sRNAs associated with an argonaute protein, AGO3, by affinity purification and deep sequencing. Using a stringent set of criteria for canonical miRNA annotation, we identified 39 precursor miRNAs, which produce 45 unique, AGO3-associated miRNA sequences including 13 previously reported miRNAs and 32 novel ones. Potential miRNA targets were identified based on the complementarity of miRNAs with candidate binding sites on transcripts and classified, depending on the extent of complementarity, as being likely to be regulated t

SUBMITTER: Voshall A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4423357 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature