Revised annotation of Plutella xylostella microRNAs

We used our newly ultra deep sequence data and bioinformatics to re-annotate P. xylostella genome for high confidence miRNAs with the correct 5p and 3p arm features. Furthermore, the whole genome was screened to identify potential miRNA binding sites using three target-predicting algorithms. Totally, 203 mature miRNAs were annotated, including 33 novel miRNAs. Overall design: Two geographical populations of Diamondback moth larvae from Queensland (Gatton) and South Australia (Waite) were collected and reared on the cabbage plant at the University of Queensland in Australia. Total RNA was extracted from fifteen 3rd instar larval samples using Triazol® following the manufacturer’s protocol (Life Technologies). The small RNA libraries were generated from both populations with three biological replicates using the Illumina Truseq small RNA preparation kit at the Australian Genome Research Facility (AGRF-Melbourne, Australia). The purified cDNA libraries were sequenced on Illumina HiSeq and raw sequencing reads (50 nt) were obtained using Illumina’s Sequencing Control Studio software.