Maize sRNAs involved in cold stress response in 5-day old seedlings

Although small, particularly microRNAs (miRNAs) have been recognised as key regulators of plant stress response, research on their role in cold tolerance of maize during early seedling stages is scarce. Herein, we examined their role in the cold stress (10/8°C) response of 5d-old maize seedlings of one tolerant and one sensitive inbred line, 6h and 24h from the beginning of the stress, by applying high throughput sequencing. After the small RNA library construction was completed, signle-end sequencing was carried out on a Illumina Novaseq 6000 platform.