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Updated: Feb 24, 2026

A Bioinformatics Pipeline to Accurately and Efficiently Analyze the MicroRNA Transcriptomes in Plants
Published on: January 21, 2020
Identification and expression analysis of microRNAs during ovule development in rice (Oryza sativa) by deep
Ya Wu1, Liyu Yang1, Meiling Yu1
1State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China.
Key Message:
MicroRNA (miRNA) expression profiles during rice ovule development revealed the possible miRNA-mediated regulation between ovule sporophytic tissue and female gametophyte and the involvement of miRNAs in programmed cell death. MiRNAs are 20-24-nucleotide small RNAs that play key roles in the regulation of many growth and developmental processes in plants. Rice ovule development comprises a series of biological events, which are regulated by complex molecular mechanisms. To gain insight into miRNA-mediated regulation of rice ovule development, Illumina sequencing was used to examine the expression of miRNAs from the megaspore mother cell meiosis stage to the fertilized ovule stage. Based on the sequencing data, 486 known and 204 novel miRNAs were identified during rice ovule development. Moreover, 56, 65 and 11 differentially expressed miRNAs between adjacent developmental stages were identified. By analyzing transcriptome and degradome data, we identified 41, 65 and 12 coherent target genes for the differentially expressed miRNAs in ovule development. We found that changes in the expression of plant hormone-related miRNAs may play important roles in embryo sac development, providing evidence for cross-talk communication between sporophytic tissue and the female gametophyte. Additionally, we revealed that miRNAs may be involved in programmed cell death after fertilization. Finally, we constructed miRNA-mediated regulatory networks that are active during rice ovule development.
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