PROFILING THE CARROT (DAUCUS CAROTA L.) MICRORNAS AND THEIR TARGETS

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-protein coding and negative regulatory RNAs approximately 18-26 nucleotides in length. The comparative genomic methodology due to their conserved nature is a rational approach for the novel miRNAs discovery. In this study, total 17 novel miRNAs from 12 families were identified in an important vegetable carrot (Daucus carota). All the miRNA families (dca-mir-156, 160, 167, 172, 774, 778, 854, 1310, 5015, 5030, 5658 and 5664) are found for the first time in carrot. All 17 miRNA precursors form stable minimum free energy secondary structures and the mature miRNAs reside in the stem region of the secondary structures. A total of 24 putative targets were also identified. These findings will be useful to understand the complicated negative gene regulation in the important plant carrot.