Xanthium strumarium Transcriptome or Gene expression

The medicinal plant Xanthium strumarium L. (X. strumarium) is covered with glandular trichomes, which are the sites for synthesizing pharmacologically active terpenoids such as xanthatin.MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of 21–24 nucleotide (nt) non-coding RNAs, most of which are identified as regulating plant growth development. Based on the transcriptome dataset of X. strumarium that we previously obtained, high-throughput small RNA sequencing, combined with target gene prediction, was performed in this study to discover those novel and conserved miRNAs with potential roles in regulating the biosynthesis of sesquiterpenoids in the glandular trichomes of the plant.