Genome-Wide Identification of Conserved MiRNAs in Andrographis paniculate Nees

No study has been performed on identifying microRNAs in the medicinal plant, Andrographis paniculata.Nain-e Havandi (Andrographis paniculata Nees) is a medicinal plant of the Acanthaceae family. Nain-eHavandi has numerous medicinal properties and is widely used in Chinese traditional medicine. Medicinalproperties of this plant include anti-cancer, anti-diabetes and anti-hepatitis. MicroRNAs are a class of short(۱۸ to ۲۴ nt), non-coding regulatory RNAs that play a major role in post-transcriptional gene silencing bytargeting mRNAs for degradation or inhibiting translation. MiRNAs are the main regulators of a wide rangeof biological processes, including evolution, cell differentiation, signal transduction, secondary metabolicpathways, and response to a variety of biotic and abiotic stresses. The purpose of this study was to identifyconserved miRNAs in the genome of the Andrographis paniculata through the computational genomicshomology search approach. The required genomic sequences of the Andrographis paniculata and the maturesequences of previously identified plant-conserved miRNAs were obtained from the NCBI and miRBasedatabases, respectively. The Blastn was performed to find identical sequences with conserved miRNAs inthe genome of Andrographis paniculata. The protein-coding sequences were then deleted using the Blastxalgorithm. The mfold web server software was used to study the secondary structure of the remainingsequences. Also, the analysis of the minimal folding free energy index, base content, and percentage of basepairs formed in secondary structures was performed. Finally, a total of ۴۶ conserved miRNAs were identifiedin the genome of Andrographis paniculata, of which ۲۶ miRNAs belonged to ۱۷ independent families. ThemiR۱۵۶ family with ۴ members was the largest identified family. The miR۳۹۹ family had three membersand the miR۱۶۷_۱, miR۱۶۰, miR۱۶۹_۲ and miR۵۰۶۷ families each had two members. Only one memberwas identified for each of the ۱۱ remaining miRNA families.

کلیدواژه ها:

Andrographis paniculata ، Bioinformatics ، Comparative genomics ، Genome ، MicroRNAs