Elucidation of miRNAs in Avena sativa

Gene expression has many points of regulation including transcription factor binding, DNA methylation, and histone modification. At the post-transcriptional level, one of the more recently described mechanisms is the regulation of genes through small non-coding RNAs.   In eukaryotes, micro RNAs (miRNAs) and short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are the primary family members of sRNAs with post-transcriptional gene regulation responsibilities.  miRNAs and siRNAs use the RNA interference pathway to silence genes primarily through cleavage of the target mRNA in plants.  miRNAs also influence gene expression through a translational repression mechanism that has minor effect on the target mRNA level, but rather significantly decreases the target protein level. In plants, miRNAs regulate development of leaves, roots, shoots, and flowers through targeting families of transcription factors such as HD-ZIP, AP2, SCL, SPL, and NAC families.  Developmental defects are observed in mutants of these miRNA regulation networks.  In addition to regulating development, miRNAs also are involved in abiotic and biotic strass response.  Plant disease and environmental stress decrease crop yield, which is a global problem as reduced crop yield struggles to meet world food production demand.  With the majority of our world population’s diet being composed of grains, there is a critical need to understand the epigenetic influence of miRNAs in cereal crops, including Avena sativa.  miRNAs have been annotated in rice, corn, wheat, and barley; however, none have been publicly annotated in oat.

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