miRNAs expression in two soybean root with contrasting cadmium tolerance

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play crucial roles in regulating the expression of various stress responses genes in plant. To investigate soybean (Glycine max) miRNAs involved in the response to cadmium (Cd), microarrays containing 953 unique miRNA probes were employed to identify differences in the expression patterns of the miRNA between different genotypes, Huaxia3 (HX3, Cd-tolerant) and Zhonghuang24 (ZH24, Cd-sensitive). A total of 26 Cd-responsive miRNAs were identified, of which nine were detected in both cultivars, while five were expressed only in HX3 and 12 were only in ZH24. In the study presented here, four root samples from two contrast soybean cultivars, HX3 (Cd-tolerant) and ZH24 (Cd-sensitive), with or without (Cd) cadmium, harvested at 6, 12, 24, 48, 96 and 144 h after the initiation of Cd treatment, was used to acquire expression profiles of a total of 953 unique genes, leading to the successful construction of supervised.