Identification of MicroRNAs and Their Putative Targets that Respond to Drought Stress in Solanum tuberosum

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs that are found in both animals and plants. miRNAs function as negative post-transcriptional regulators during plant development and in response to biotic and abiotic stresses. In present study, high-throughput DNA sequencing and alignments with sequences from microRNA database (miRBase), a microRNA database, were used to identify drought stress-related miRNAs. This method is useful for identifying miRNAs and determining their expression profiles when genomic sequences are not available. Three drought-induced miRNAs, stu-miR396, stu-miR156a, and stu-miR157a were identified in potato (Solanum tuberosum). Effects of drought stress on their expression profiles were demonstrated, and their target mRNAs were predicted.