Mining of miRNAs using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) data generated for Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus).

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, highly conserved non-coding RNA molecules involved in the regulation of gene expression in eukaryotes. Gene expression involves post-transcriptional gene regulation by miRNAs. miRNAs are formed from precursor RNA molecules that fold into a stem loop secondary structure. The mature miRNA is one end of the precursor miRNA, defined by the cut from 'Drosha' on either the 5' or 3' arm. In this study, we have used a bioinformatics approach to identify miRNAs in 3,361 contigs obtained from partial genome sequence data of Abelmoschus esculentus (okra) sequenced by NGS technology. Using C-mii and psRNA Target tools, we identified two miRNAs and their target RNAs for which a regulatory miRNA binding has been verified. Their targets consisted of transcription factors involved in growth and development, gene regulation and metabolism. Phylogenetic analysis of the newly identified miRNA family has been done to compare their level of conservation with respect to the other members of the plant kingdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]