Identification of microRNAs from Bletilla striata--sRNA-seq

We used sRNA-seq to identify the microRNAs (miRNAs) from three organs (root, stem and leaf) of Bletilla striata. Firstly, according to the plant mature miRNAs already registered in miRBase (release 22.1), potentially conserved miRNAs were discovered from Bletilla striata. Besides, based on the RNA-seq data and de novo transcriptome assembly, we performed a transcriptome-wide prediction of the miRNA precursors. In addition to the precursors encoding conserved miRNAs, those producing novel miRNAs were also discovered. Organ-specific expression patterns of the above discovered miRNAs were investigated.