关键词: 小RNA 干扰小RNA（siRNA） 微小RNA（miRNA） 发育

Abstract:

Non-coding RNAs are abundant in eukaryotic cells, of which small RNAs constitute a family of regulatory RNAs of -22nt in length, siRNA and miRNA are the two major types, both of which are produced by RNase Ⅲ-like enzymes called Dicer in plants. They are incorporated into silencing complexes to guide repression of target genes. miRNAs are chemically and functionally similar to siRNAs but are derived from local stem-loop structures in the genome. miRNAs have recently been shown to play critical roles at each major stage of plant development, regulating a number of key pathways. They typically act at the core of a gene regulatory network, mostly targeting transcription factors and regulatory proteins that are involved in organ morphogenesis and plant development.

Key words: small RNA, small interfering RNA （siRNA）, microRNA （miRNA）, development