Identification of conserved and novel mature miRNAs in selected crops as future targets for metabolic engineering

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules, involved in the post-transcriptional gene expression of countless metabolic pathways including plant biomass production. The current work was focused on identification of miRNAs involved in the growth metabolism of Glycine max, Oryza sativa, Zea mays, Sorghum bicolor, Brassica napus, Triticum aestivum. In order to identify conserved miRNA clusters, the miRNA data were collected from miRBase database. Overall, 756, 738, 325, 241, 92, and 125 datasets of the mature miRNA sequences of Glycine max, Oryza sativa, Zea mays, Sorghum bicolor, Brassica napus, Triticum aestivum were collected from miRbase. Using MEGA software, a total of 6, 6, 5, 6, and 3 conserved miRNA clusters were examined in aforementioned crops, respectively, with the aim of studying the conserved miRNA clusters belonging to same gene families. The conserved miRNA clusters were shown to belong to miR166, miR399, miR156, miR171, miR164, miR167, and miR394 families in the selected crops. This study may lead to elucidate the role of these miRNAs and their subsequent exploitation to enhance the biomass production via metabolic pathway engineering.