Abstract
Background
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as key regulators of post-transcriptional degradation and/or translational repression in both plants and animals. Increasing evidence has pointed to the important role of intergenic miRNAs in response to environmental stresses; however, detailed information about intronic miRNAs in plants is not clear.
Results
Here, we performed quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis using transgenic plants to investigate the relationship between intronic miRNAs and their respective host genes in Arabidopsis. Here, we found that three Arabidopsis thaliana intronic miRNAs (miR400, miR838, and miR848) were co-transcribed with their host genes in different organs. Intriguingly, both miR400 and its host gene (At1g32583) were up-regulated during cold stress. Unlike intronic miRNAs in animals, the change of expression levels of plant intronic miRNAs in transgenic lines did not affect the transcriptional levels of their host genes. This result indicates that there is no feedback regulation loop between the intronic miRNAs and their host genes in Arabidopsis. In miRNAs-cropping mutants, the mature miRNAs were significantly reduced, while the expression levels of host genes did not change, suggestting the microprocessor also play roles in intronic miRNA processing.
Conclusions
Together, these results provide the evidence that there is an independent relationship between the processing of intronic miRNAs and their host genes in Arabidopsis.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank TopEdit (www.topeditsci.com) for its linguistic assistance during the preparation of this manuscript.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 31870234, 31970292 and 31972357) in China.
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Y.L, Q.G, and K.Y conceived and designed the experiments; Y.L and Q.G. performed the experiments; K.Y, and Y.L made the figures and wrote the article; M.W provided important suggestions; and K.Y, Y.L, and C.Z. supervised and complemented the writing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Ying Li and Qianhuan Guo contributed equally to this work.
Key Messages
• Arabidopsis intronic miRNAs (miR400, miR838, and miR848) were co-transcribed with their host genes in different tissues.
• miR400 and its host gene were upregulated during cold stress.
• The change of plant intronic miRNAs expression in transgenic lines did not affect the transcriptional levels of their host genes.
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Li, Y., Guo, Q., Wang, M. et al. The Processing and Regulation of Intronic miRNAs Are Independent of Their Host Genes in Arabidopsis. Plant Mol Biol Rep 40, 95–105 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11105-021-01298-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11105-021-01298-3