Abstract
Key message
High-throughput sequencing and subsequent analysis indicated that miRNAs play crucial roles in floral thermogenesis of Magnolia denudata flowers.
Abstract
Animal-like thermogenic activity in flowers has been reported in several families of seed plants. Many studies have explored the ecological significance of thermogenesis in pollination biology; however, the molecular mechanisms regulating floral thermogenesis remain unclear. To characterize the roles of miRNA in floral thermogenesis, we analyzed miRNA expression in Magnolia denudata flowers during thermogenic and non-thermogenic stages. High-throughput sequencing and subsequent analysis revealed 82 conserved and 32 novel miRNAs in M. denudata flowers. A total of 187 EST sequences were predicted to be targets of 63 miRNAs. The target genes fell into 15 KOG functional classes and were involved in 25 KEGG pathways, suggesting that miRNAs play extensive regulatory roles in biological processes of M. denudata flowers. Among the identified miRNAs, 17 were differentially expressed between thermogenic and non-thermogenic stages and thus were thought to play roles in regulating floral thermogenesis in M. denudata. GO enrichment analysis revealed that target genes of these thermogenesis-related miRNAs were enriched in the functional groups ‘polyprenyl transferase activity’ and ‘photosynthetic electron transport’. Considering the important roles of polyprenyl transferase in the respiratory chain and the fact that floral thermogenesis of M. denudata flowers is associated with sunlight, we can infer that miRNAs play crucial roles in floral thermogenesis of M. denudata flowers by regulating cellular respiration and light reactions.
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Author contribution statement
XL, DC, and RW conceived and designed the experiments; XL, DC, and XJ performed the experiments; XL, DC, ZZ, YW, and RW analyzed the data; XL, DC, and RW wrote the paper.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities (No. YX 2014-14) and National Science Fund of China (No. 31100450 & No. J1103516).
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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Communicated by R. D. Guy.
X. Liu and D. Cao contributed equally to the manuscript.
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Supplementary material 1 (PDF 43 kb)
Figure S1. Work flow of ACGT-101.
Supplementary material 2 (PDF 44 kb)
Table S1. Detailed information for conserved miRNAs.
Supplementary material 3 (PDF 37 kb)
Table S2. Detailed information for novel miRNAs.
Supplementary material 4 (PDF 47 kb)
Table S3. Predicted targets of identified miRNAs.
Supplementary material 5 (PDF 39 kb)
Table S4. Differentially expressed miRNAs in pistils at bud swelling and female stage flowers.
Supplementary material 6 (PDF 38 kb)
Table S5. Differentially expressed miRNAs in pistils at bud swelling and male stage flowers.
Supplementary material 7 (PDF 34 kb)
Table S6. Putative targets of thermogenesis-related miRNAs.
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Liu, X., Cao, D., Ji, X. et al. miRNAs play essential roles in the floral thermogenesis of Magnolia denudata (Magnoliaceae). Trees 29, 35–42 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-014-1051-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-014-1051-9