High throughput sequencing of the small RNAs from banana cv. Rasthali (AAB group). Musa AAB Group

Small RNAs comprise a group of non coding RNAs which play significant role in the genetic regulation of growth and development in plants. The most important members of this family are the small inhibiting RNAs (siRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs). They are processed by the DICER like proteins in plants and incorporated into the RNA induced silencing complex to silence the cognate mRNAs by sequence specific cleavage. High throughput sequencing strategies have enabled the identification of complete gamut of small RNA sequences present in a plant tissue at a particular point of time enabling the study of their biological significance in different plant tissues. The small RNA profile of each plant shows few plant conserved sequences, few species specific sequences and few novel RNA sequences characteristic of each cultivar. Here we have performed high throughput sequencing of small RNA population derived from leaves of an elite edible Indian cultivar of banana cv. Rasthali (‘Silk’ subgroup with AAB genotype) to identify the microRNAs and other important small RNAs being expressed in the leaves of banana cv Rasthali. Overall design: Generation of complete small RNA profile of banana cv. Rasthali for comparison with similar databases