Potato miRNAs and their role in potato tuber formation

马铃薯是第三大粮食作物，因其地下储存茎（块茎）而在世界范围内种植，富含淀粉和其他营养物质。马铃薯在世界主要粮食作物中具有独特的块茎形成，但块茎发育的过程尚未完全了解。了解导致块茎形成的基本生物学过程对于将来能够选择更好的品种（具有更高的产量、特定的形状、质地或皮肤颜色）是至关重要的。这些RNA分子被称为“微小”RNA（miRNAs）。这个新的，最近发现的，基因调控层涉及小RNA（包括miRNA）作为转录后基因调控的调控分子。这种机制在动物和植物中广泛存在，小RNA的发现改变了我们对基因调控的基本知识。miRNAs在生物和非生物胁迫下的发育和基因调控中发挥重要作用，本实验旨在研究马铃薯miRNAs转录组。利用光周期诱导的块茎形成系统，我们的目标是找到参与这一生物学过程的miRNAs。通过产生小RNA的高通量序列数据，马铃薯基因组的可用性使我们能够使用生物信息学工具鉴定miRNA“基因”。我们的目的是确定保守的以及马铃薯特异性的miRNA，并调查候选miRNA在块茎形成中的作用。我们将描述候选miRNAs的特征，并在植物中验证它们。这些miRNAs将有助于预测和验证这些调控分子的靶分子。这些基因可能在块茎发育或其他与块茎形成相关的生物学过程中发挥重要作用。miRNAs和靶基因将有助于影响和修改导致块茎形成的途径，我们可能能够影响或修改这一过程，最终导致培育这种重要作物的改良品种的能力。这些知识将最终帮助我们生产一种重要的粮食来源，提高产量和质量。

Potato is the third most important food crop, and it is cultivated worldwide for its underground storage stems (tubers), rich in starch and other nutrients. Potato is unique among the major world food crops in tuber formation and the processes by which tubers develop are not well understood. It is essential to know the basic biological processes which lead to tuber formation to be able to select better cultivars (with higher yield, specific shape, texture or skin colour) for the future.In this proposal we aim to identify small regulatory RNAs which play a role in tuber formation. These RNA molecules are called 'micro' RNAs (miRNAs). This new, recently discovered, layer of gene regulation involves small RNAs (including miRNAs) as regulatory molecules for post-transcriptional gene regulation. This mechanism is widespread in animals and plants and the discovery of small RNAs has changed our basic knowledge about the regulation of genes. miRNAs play important roles in development and gene regulation upon biotic and abiotic stresses.In our experiments we aim to explore the miRNA transcriptome of potato. Using a photoperiod inducible tuberization system we aim to find miRNAs involoved in this biological process. By generating high-throughput sequence data for small RNAs the availability of the potato genome enables us to identify the miRNA 'genes' using bioinformatics tools. We aim to identify conserved as well as potato specific miRNAs and investigate the role of candidate miRNAs in tuberization. We will characterize the candidate miRNAs and validate them in plants. These miRNAs will help to predict and validate the target molecules for these regulatory molecules. Such genes might play important roles in tuber development or other biological processes connected to tuber formation. The miRNAs and the target genes will help to influence and modify the pathways which lead to tuber formation and we might be able to influence or modify this process, ultimately leading to the ability to breed improved cultivars of this important crop. This knowledge will ultimately help us to produce an important food source with higher yields and improved quality.