Post-transcriptional regulation of sesquiterpene pathway in Santalum album L.

Santalum album L. (Indian sandalwood) is a hemi-parasitic, evergreen tree known for its essential oil and is one of the most valuable commodities in International market. The post-transcriptional regulation of the genes regulating the pathway is still elusive in this genus. In this report, an integrated analysis of wood transcriptome and small RNA datasets was conducted to investigate the role of miRNAs in regulating the transcripts involved in the sesquiterpene biosynthesis pathway. A total of 25,974 unigenes were predicted from the wood transcriptome with 45 transcripts mapped to the sesquiterpenoid pathway. Small RNA analysis identified 257 conserved miRNAs belonging to 50 families and 7 novel putative miRNAs. A total of 69 miRNAs belonging to 12 miRNA families targeted 12 transcripts from the sesquiterpene pathway.