MicroRNA Profiles and Their Control of Male Gametophyte Development in Rice

Plant microRNAs (miRNAs) act as negative regulators of gene expression by slicing target transcripts or inhibiting the translation, and a number of miRNAs play important roles in development. In order to investigate the potential function of miRNAs during male gametogenesis in rice, we obtained both gene and small RNA expression profiles by combining Affymetrix microarray and high-throughput sequencing technologies. In genome-scale, we compared arrays and sRNA-Seq datasets in different stages/organs of rice by applying computational and statistical approaches. Subsequently, we identified 13363 expressed genes and 104 expressed unique miRNAs in pollen, thus, we constructed an interaction network of miRNA-target basing on two datasets. By employing enrichment analysis, we found miRNA-regulated targets involved in both up and down pathways, but predominantly in down pathways including 30 GO biological processes and 34 KEGG pathways. Our findings indicated that miRNAs plays a broad regulatory role during male gametophyte development in rice. This SuperSeries is composed of the SubSeries listed below. Overall design: Refer to individual Series.