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Updated: Jul 16, 2026

A Bioinformatics Pipeline to Accurately and Efficiently Analyze the MicroRNA Transcriptomes in Plants
Published on: January 21, 2020
In Vitro Transcription of Plant miRNA for Structural and Processing Analysis
Corina Diaz-Quezada1, Noe Baruch-Torres2, Carlos H Trasviña-Arenas3
1Unidad de Genomica Avanzada (UGA), Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional (Cinvestav), Carretera Irapuato-León, Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico.
Abstract:
Plant miRNAs are short gene repressors, ranging in length from 20 to 24 nucleotides, that specifically target mRNAs to effectively promote cleavage or impinge translation. Long primary miRNAs (pri-miRNA) from plants fold into double-stranded RNA structures with stem loop structures. These structures are then processed by an RNase type III enzyme and several other proteins. A functional mature miRNA selects its mRNA target through complementary base pairing. Importantly, plant pri-miRNA are variable in size and structure. Here, we describe a protocol to identify plant pri-miRNA processing intermediates by in vitro T7 RNA polymerase transcription and its purification for enzymatic and chemical footprinting as a tool to analyze the peculiarities of plant miRNA processing.
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