In silico prediction and characterization of microRNAs from pigeon pea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.]

Pigeon pea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.] is an important food legume crop cultivated in India. Availability of whole genome sequence of pigeon pea has led to initiation of litany studies for annotation of genome sequences. The discoveries of miRNAs in plants and the growing evidence of their involveinent in a variety of functional roles have produced a great deal of excitement in plant biology. The present study was undertaken to identify the miRNAs in pigeon pea along with their possible targets using computational methods. Thirteen miRNAs were identified and their targets were identified from mRNA and 3'UTR sequences of pigeon pea using MiRanda, BLAST and psRNA toolkit. This study would help in improved understanding of molecular mechanisms of miRNA and development of novel and more precise techniques for better understanding of post-transcriptional gene silencing in pigeon pea.