Table 1.
miRNAs, the targets, and their roles in plant development.
| miRNA | Target | Target function | Species | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| miR156 | SPL family | Plastochron length, promoting flowering; Leaf development, root development, secondary metabolism and abiotic stress; tillering and corn development in Zea mays | Arabidopsis and Zea mays | Aukerman and Sakai, 2003; Chuck et al., 2007a, 2010; Wang et al., 2008; Xu et al., 2016b; Dai et al., 2018 |
| miR159 | GAMYB or GAMYB-like gene | Male reproductive development, seed development, vegetative tissues and reproductive development | Arabidopsis | Allen et al., 2007; Millar et al., 2019 |
| miR160 | ARFs | Embryo, leaf and root development, hypocotyl elongation | Arabidopsis, Medicago truncatula and Zea mays | Bustos-Sanmamed et al., 2013; Lopez-Ruiz et al., 2019; Yang et al., 2019; Dai et al., 2021 |
| miR164 | NAC family | Meristem boundary identity, Auxiliary meristem formation, leaf and flower development, lateral root initiation | Arabidopsis, Zea mays and Oryza | Li et al., 2003; Laufs et al., 2004; Hibara et al., 2006; Raman et al., 2008; Zheng et al., 2019; Wang et al., 2021b |
| miR165/166 | HD-ZIP III | Maintaining meristematic cells, adaxial identity of leaves, lateral root growth, and procambium identity | Arabidopsis | Williams et al., 2005; Jia et al., 2015; Merelo et al., 2016; Yan et al., 2016 |
| miR167 | ARFs | Development of male organ、 roots、 stems、 leaves and flowers, flowering time, embryonic development, seed development and stress response, defense against pathogens | Arabidopsis and Oryza | Wu et al., 2006; Liu et al., 2012; Yao et al., 2019; Caruana et al., 2020 |
| miR169 | CBF and NF-YA family | Enhancer of C homeotic gene transcription and root architecture | Arabidopsis, Antirrhinum majus and Zea mays | Cartolano et al., 2007; Sorin et al., 2014; Xu et al., 2014; Xing et al., 2021 |
| miR171 | SCL | Chlorophyll biosynthesis, phase transitions and floral meristem determinacy | Arabidopsis, barley | Curaba et al., 2013; Ma et al., 2014; Li et al., 2021 |
| miR172 | AP2 family | Represses flowering, flower meristem identity and patterning; vegetative phase change, carpel and stamen development; flower opening, tuberization and salt tolerance | Arabidopsis, Z. mays, Oryza,H. vulgare, and S. tuberosum | Chuck et al., 2007b; Martin et al., 2009; Wu et al., 2009; Nair et al., 2010; Wollmann et al., 2010; Zhu and Helliwell, 2011; Cheng et al., 2021a; Lian et al., 2021; Werner et al., 2021 |
| miR319 | TCP family | Leaf development and senescence, organ curvature, and hormone biosynthesis and signaling. | Arabidopsis and Solanum lycopersicum | Ori et al., 2007; Schommer et al., 2014; Koyama et al., 2017; Bresso et al., 2018 |
| miR390 | TAS3 | ta-siRNA biogenesis for ARF repression and indirect miR165/166 regulation, lateral root growth, leaf patterning | Arabidopsis | Fahlgren et al., 2006; Marin et al., 2010; Endo et al., 2013; Dastidar et al., 2019 |
| miR393 | TIR1 and AFB | Auxin homeostasis, lateral root growth, leaf shape/number | Arabidopsis and Oryza | Parry et al., 2009; Chen et al., 2011; Windels and Vazquez, 2011; Lu et al., 2018; Wang et al., 2018 |
| miR394 | LCR | Meristematic identity suppression via WUS downregulation, leaf inclination and architecture, | Arabidopsis | Baumann, 2013; Knauer et al., 2013; Qu et al., 2019 |
| miR396 | GRF | Cell proliferation in leaves, disease-resistance, somatic embryogenesis, grain size and panicle branching |
Arabidopsis, Medicago, and Oryza |
Debernardi et al., 2012; Bazin et al., 2013; Liu et al., 2014a; Chandran et al., 2018; Szczygiel-Sommer and Gaj, 2019; Liebsch and Palatnik, 2020; Zhang et al., 2020 |
| mir397 | OsLAC | Grain yield, panicle branches | Oryza | Zhang et al., 2013 |
| miR824 | AGL16 | Stomatal patterning | Arabidopsis | Bergmann and Sack, 2007 |
| miR828 and miR858 | MYBs | Fiber development, anthocyanin, and flavonol accumulation | Cotton, grapes | Guan et al., 2014; Tirumalai et al., 2019 |
| miR847 | IAA28 | Lateral root formation | Arabidopsis | Wang and Guo, 2015 |
| miR857 | LACCASE7 | Secondary growth | Arabidopsis | Abdel-Ghany and Pilon, 2008; Zhao et al., 2015 |
| TAS3 | ARF3/4 and (only in mosses) AP2-like | Vasculature development, Leaf polarity / phase transition | All land plants | Fahlgren et al., 2006; Jing et al., 2017 |