The transcriptomes of Panax notoginseng roots and mixed plant tissues

The roots of 20 Panax notoginseng plants grown in Wenshan County, Yunnan, China were frozen in liquid nitrogen immediately. The samples were stored at -80 degrees Celsius until RNAs were extracted. Total RNAs were extracted from root tissue using the Trizol reagent (Invitrogen, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., USA) according to the manufacturer's protocol. Multiple tissues, including fruits, stems, leaves, and roots, of one Panax notoginseng plants were also collected and frozen in liquid nitrogen immediately. Then, total RNA of the mixed tissues was also extracted using the Trizol reagent (Invitrogen, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., USA) according to the manufacturer's protocol. The integrities of the 21 obtained RNAs were checked using an ultraviolet spectrophotometer (Hoefer, MA, USA), based on the ratio of the optical density at 260 nm to that at 280 nm (OD260/280) and were also assessed by electrophoresis in a denaturing formaldehyde agarose gel, based on visual comparison with the 18S and 28S ribosomal RNAs. The 21 obtained RNAs were sequenced using Illumina HiSeq2000 sequencer. The obtained sequences were assembled using Trinity (v2.0.6). The obtained transcripts were used to identify pre-miRNAs, TAS3, and coding genes as targets of miRNAs and tasiRNAs.