miRNA expression profiling in AY phytoplasma-infected Vitis vinifera cv. 'Chardonnay'

This study is the first to utilise a bioinformatics pipeline to dissect complex high-throughput sRNA sequencing (sRNA-seq) data in order to identify miRNAs that are differentially expressed in V. vinifera in response to AY phytoplasma-infection. Furthermore, we used computational resources for the in silico prediction and annotation of putative miRNA targets to explore the involvement of possible pathogen response pathways. Understanding sRNA-mediated gene regulation is crucial because it expands our knowledge of gene regulatory pathways involved in different stress-regulated physiological processes. Our results provide insight into miRNA-mediated pathogenesis in V. vinifera and may shed light on disease control strategies for molecular breeding in the future.