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MicroRNAs in plant-parasitic nematodes: what are they and why should we care? Cover

MicroRNAs in plant-parasitic nematodes: what are they and why should we care?

Open Access
|Sep 2025

Figures & Tables

Figure 1:

Canonical miRNA biogenesis pathways in animals and plants. miRNA synthesis begins with the transcription of pri-miRNAs, which are then cleaved into pre-miRNAs by different enzymes. These precursors are subsequently processed into mature miRNAs—within the nucleus in plants, but in the cytoplasm in animals. The resulting miRNA duplexes are then loaded onto different AGO proteins, with distinct AGO associations in plants versus animals. AGO, argonaute; miRNAs, microRNAs; pre-miRNAs, precursor miRNAs; pri-miRNAs, primary miRNAs.
Canonical miRNA biogenesis pathways in animals and plants. miRNA synthesis begins with the transcription of pri-miRNAs, which are then cleaved into pre-miRNAs by different enzymes. These precursors are subsequently processed into mature miRNAs—within the nucleus in plants, but in the cytoplasm in animals. The resulting miRNA duplexes are then loaded onto different AGO proteins, with distinct AGO associations in plants versus animals. AGO, argonaute; miRNAs, microRNAs; pre-miRNAs, precursor miRNAs; pri-miRNAs, primary miRNAs.

Tools and databases commonly used in the study of non-model organisms’ miRNAs_

ToolDescriptionAccess linkReference
DATABASES
miRBaseThe primary repository for miRNA sequences and annotation.https://www.mirbase.org/Kozomara et al. (2019)
MirGeneDBHigh-confidence, manually curated miRNA gene database.https://mirgenedb.org/Clarke et al. (2025)
RfamDatabase of ncRNA families from a wide array of species.https://rfam.orgKalvari et al. (2021)
TargetWormScanSearchable database of predicted regulatory targets of worm miRNAs.https://www.targetscan.org/worm_52/Lewis et al. (2005)
PmiRENComprehensive plant repository of plant miRNAs.https://pmiren.com/Guo et al. (2020)
ncPlantDBDatabase specialized in ncRNAs in plants.https://bis.zju.edu.cn/ncPlantDB/index/Liu et al. (2025)
ExoCartaDatabase containing information on exosomal proteins and RNAs including miRNAs.http://exocarta.org/index.htmlKeerthikumar et al. (2016)
miRTarBaseComprehensive collection of validated miRNA-mRNA targets.https://mirtarbase.cuhk.edu.cn/~miRTarBase/miRTarBase_2025/php/index.phpCui et al. (2025)
miRecordsResource for animal miRNA-target interactions including C.elegans.http://c1.accurascience.com/miRecords/Xiao et al. (2009)
PREDICTION TOOLS
MirDeep2Most widely used tool for both known and novel miRNA prediction in animals and plants.https://github.com/rajewsky-lab/mirdeep2Friedländer et al. (2012)
miRanalyzerTool for the detection of known, and prediction of new miRNAs, in high-throughput sequencing experiments.http://bioinfo2.ugr.es/miRanalyzer/Hackenberg et al. (2011)
miRPlantmiRNA predictor utilizing plant-specific parameters (e.g., handling of diverse hairpin lengths and sequences).https://sourceforge.net/projects/mirplant/An et al. (2014)
sRNAbenchPart of the sRNAToolKit suite for miRNA discovery and quantification using sRNASeq data.http://bioinfo5.ugr.es/srnatoolbox/Aparicio-Puerta et al. (2022)
ShortStackHighly accurate, plant-optimized, and supports multi-mapping small RNAs.https://github.com/MikeAxtell/ShortStacAxtell (2013)
miRParaPredicted miRNA precursors based on structural and sequence features.https://github.com/weasteam/miRParaWu et al. (2011)
RNAFoldComprehensive collection of tools for folding, design and analysis of RNA sequences.http://rna.tbi.univie.ac.at/cgi-bin/RNAWebSuite/RNAfold.cgiGruber et al. (2008)
TARGET PREDICTION
miRandaAn miRNA target scanner that aims to predict mRNA targets for miRNAs using dynamic-programming alignment and thermodynamics.https://github.com/hacktrackgnulinux/mirandaBetel et al. (2010)
RNAHybridTool for finding the minimum free energy hybridization of a long and a short RNA.https://bibiserv.cebitec.uni-bielefeld.de/rnahybridKrüger and Rehmsmeier (2006)
psRNATargetSpecifically developed to identify target transcripts of plant regulatory sRNAs.https://www.zhaolab.org/psRNATarget/Dai and Zhao (2011)
p-TarPMirDeep learning model adapted for plant miRNA target prediction.https://ptarpmir.cu-bic.caAjila et al. (2023b)
miTARAnimal trained hybrid deep learning approach to predict miRNA targets.https://github.com/tjgu/miTARGu et al. (2021)

Distinguishing characteristics inherent to miRNA and siRNA_

FeaturemiRNAsiRNA
OriginEndogenousEndogenous and exogenous
StructureHairpin precursorLong dsRNA
Processing enzymesDicer1 or DCL1 (in nucleus, mostly)Dicer2 or DCL4 (also DCL2, DCL3 depending on siRNA class)
Target complementarityPartial (often with central mismatches) or near perfectUsually perfect or near-perfect
FunctionPost-transcriptional gene regulation (mRNA degradation or translational inhibition)Gene silencing, antiviral defense, transposon suppression, RdDM
Target specificityOften targets multiple genes in the same familyHighly specific to one or few targets
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jofnem-2025-0041 | Journal eISSN: 2640-396X | Journal ISSN: 0022-300X
Language: English
Submitted on: Jun 17, 2025
Published on: Sep 24, 2025
Published by: Society of Nematologists, Inc.
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 1 times per year

© 2025 Dave T. Ste-Croix, Benjamin Mimee, published by Society of Nematologists, Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.